Abbas Confirms Palestinian Statehood Effort At U.N.
David Dayen Tuesday September 6, 2011 6:50 am
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas formally announced that Palestine will seek recognition as an official state from the United Nations General Assembly this month, setting up a major battle that both Israel and the United States hoped to avoid. But Abbas wanted to also negotiate a peace deal with Israel on a parallel track, while also seeking UN membership.
“Our first, second and third priority is negotiations,” he said. “There is no other way to solve this. No matter what happens at the United Nations, we have to return to negotiations.”
But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said at a separate event that a Palestinian bid for recognition by the United Nations would “set back peace, and might set it back for years.” Israeli officials argue that a resolution recognizing a Palestinian state could complicate the prospect of talks beyond salvation.
Each side says it wants direct talks and peace but that the other side does not.
That last sentence sort of encapsulates the entire 63-year history of the Arab-Israeli conflict.
Interestingly, Abbas revealed to journalists and others that he has held secret meetings with both Israeli President Shimon Peres and defense minister Ehud Barak over the past few months. But even after those, Abbas decided that he had to use the UN gambit as a way to get the recognition his people seek.
Both Israel and the US want no part of a UN effort by Palestine. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has asserted that direct talks are the only solution (while continuing to build settlements in the West Bank and Jerusalem, the major pre-condition to direct talks from the Palestinian side). US officials have tried on several occasions to intervene and get the Palestinians to stop their appeal to the UN.
The UN effort will begin at the Security Council, which is formally speaking the only body that can grant membership to the UN. The White House has already said they would use their veto to block that effort. Then, Palestine would go to the General Assembly, where the US or any other country cannot veto. But the General Assembly cannot bestow full membership on any state. Abbas continued:
“Some Israelis complain that this is a unilateral move, but when you address 193 countries, that is not unilateral,” he said. “We are going to complain that as Palestinians we have been under occupation for 63 years.”
“We don’t want to isolate Israel but to live with it in peace and security,” he also said. “We don’t want to delegitimize Israel. We want to legitimize ourselves.”
Israeli officials are on the record saying they expected the General Assembly approach to succeed, and that most countries would vote for Palestinian statehood. The US will undoubtedly try to persuade countries to vote against statehood or abstain.
I don’t see another option for the Palestinians to change the dynamic where they are called to negotiate while Israel keeps planting settlers in their homeland, making it more difficult to determine borders and arrive at a solution. The international community needs to make a choice on the occupation and whether they will lend their support. The Administration has intimated that it’s nothing more than grandstanding. I don’t know what other recourse the Palestinians have.
