[News] How Palestinian Authority’s UN "statehood" bid endangers Palestinian rights
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Tue Aug 9 10:58:18 EDT 2011
How Palestinian Authority’s UN "statehood" bid endangers Palestinian rights
Submitted by Ali Abunimah on Mon, 08/08/2011 - 14:06
http://electronicintifada.net/blog/ali-abunimah/how-palestinian-authoritys-un-statehood-bid-endangers-palestinian-rights
The Palestinian Boycott National Committee (BNC),
the steering group of the international
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/bds>boycott,
divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign, has
issued further guidance in the run up to the
Palestinian Authority’s effort to gain UN
membership for a “State of Palestine” in September.
The
<http://www.bdsmovement.net/2011/bnc-reiterates-its-position-on-september-7794>BNC
statement today implicitly warns that recognition
of any “state” that did not include full
recognition of all Palestinian rights and the
right of all Palestinians everywhere to be
represented, could violate or negate those rights.
The statement further warns that governments
around the world cannot use symbolic recognition
of a Palestinian “state” to evade their responsibilities:
States that offer recognition of Palestinian
statehood and continue business as usual with
Israel are beyond hypocritical; they betray their
own basic legal and political obligations to end
Israel’s grave and persistent violations of
international law and Palestinian rights.
Protecting self-determination for all Palestinians
The Western-backed Palestinian Authority’s (PA)
effort to seek UN recognition of “statehood”
unilaterally, without consulting the Palestinian
people from which the PA has absolutely no
mandate, has raised fears among Palestinians that
the move could actually harm Palestinian rights.
If the UN votes to admit the “State of
Palestine,” it is likely that the unelected
representatives of the Palestinian Authority
would be seated in the General Assembly instead
of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO),
which currently holds the Palestine observer seat at the UN..
This would be a severe blow to the potential for
realizing Palestinian rights in the long run
through international bodies: whereas the PLO
ostensibly represents all Palestinians, the PA
“state” would only represent its “citizens” –
residents of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Of course in reality this “state” would not
represent anyone since it would have absolutely
no control of the territory on which it purports
to exist and its “government” – what is now the
Palestinian Authority – would remain subject to
the blackmail and pressure of its financiers and external political sponsors.
Recognizing this danger, the BNC states:
The most fundamental, inalienable right of the
people of Palestine is the right to self
determination. Ending the occupation is one
pillar in exercising that right. The right to
self-determination, which in the case of
Palestinians is represented by the Palestine
Liberation Organization (PLO), is commonly
defined as the right of “all peoples
freely to
determine, without external interference, their
political status and to pursue their economic,
social and cultural development.” It is a right
held by all Palestinians, irrespective of their
current location, by virtue of international law
and the principles of popular sovereignty and
democracy. All Palestinians, including the
refugees in the shatat (diaspora) and Palestinian
citizens of Israel, have a right to participate
in and be represented by –- in the UN and
elsewhere -– a democratic PLO that determines the
political status and pursues the economic, social
and cultural development of the entire Palestinian people.
Therefore, the statement warns:
Until the Palestinian people exercises its right
to self determination, the PLO remains the sole
legitimate representative that represents all
Palestinians in the UN and in other
international, regional and multinational forums.
No alternative will be accepted by the great
majority of the Palestinian people.
In other words, a “State of Palestine” must not
be allowed to replace or usurp the right to
representation and self-determination of the
whole Palestinian people through a reconstituted PLO.
Of course as Palestinians frequently point out,
the PLO today is largely defunct, its offices
usurped and held for life by the very people who
run the PA. But legally, the PLO remains the only
body and framework for representing all
Palestinians, and protecting the possibility for
the PLO to be revived in a truly representative form is absolutely vital.
There is no doubt that the PA “statehood” bid at
the UN – which enjoys no Palestinian consensus
behind it – represents a direct threat to this possibility.
What does self-determination look like?
The BNC reiterates that “At a minimum, exercising
the right to self determination by all Palestinians” entails:
* Ending Israel’s occupation and colonization
of all Arab lands occupied in 1967;
* Honoring the right of Palestinian citizens
of Israelto full equality by ending the Israeli
system of legalized and institutionalized racial
discrimination (which conforms to the UN definition of apartheid); and
* Respecting and enabling the implementation
of the UN-sanctioned right of Palestinian
refugees to return to their homes and lands from which they were expelled.
These demands are of course the same as those
contained in the widely supported 2005
Palestinian call for boycott, divestment and
sanctions, and unlike the narrow focus on
“statehood,” encompass the rights of all segments of the Palestinian people.
Friends of Palestine weigh in
The BNC had already issued
<http://www.bdsmovement.net/2011/before-and-after-september-7154>a
statement on the question of “statehood” on 1
June 2011, however it may have felt the need to
issue further guidance as Palestine solidarity
groups around the world have questioned whether or not to support the measure.
Some have already taken positions. The
<http://www.palestina-komitee.nl/NPK-berichten/320>Netherlands
Palestine Committee (known by its Dutch initials
NPK) issued a 3 August statement on the question
of statehood indicating it would not support the move:
If recognition of the Palestinian State by the
United Nations - at the initiative of the
Palestinian National Authority (PNA) - would take
place within the context of recognition of the
rights of the Palestinian People - and would
include the right of return of the refugees and
equal rights for the Palestinian citizens of
Israel - and concrete steps towards the
realization of those rights, the Netherlands
Palestine Committee (NPK) would then support such a measure.
Given that this in no way appears to be the case
- implying that the majority of the Palestinian
People would be deprived of realizing their
rights - NPK cannot consider this as a positive development.
This position must not be confused with the
rejection by Israel and its Western allies who,
at the same time, continually refuse to take
action against Israel’s structural violation of
international law and/or are themselves complicit
(translation from Dutch provided by NPK).
<http://www.palestina-komitee.nl/NPK-berichten/319>I
will be speaking on the question of Palestinian
“statehood” in the Netherlands, sponsored by NPK in September.
Meanwhile
<http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/301/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=7452>Jewish
Voices for Peace (JVP) issued an action alert
urging supporters to press the US government not
to veto UN admittance of the “State of Palestine.”
The JVP letter, which was issued before the
latest BNC statement came out, claims:
The Palestinians are seeking membership in the
United Nations as a way to enhance their ability
to press for freedom and justice.
It does not note that it is not “The
Palestinians” making this move but the unelected,
unaccountable PA leaders who have no mandate
whatsoever from the vast majority of living Palestinians. It continues:
We know that the vote is just one step, and only
a beginning. It won’t stop the growing pace of
Israeli settlement in East Jerusalem and the West
Bank. It won’t suddenly mean there is a viable
Palestinian state, or freedom for those in Gaza,
or a just resolution to the problem of refugees.
But it will recognize the right to Palestinian
self-determination, give our movement additional
tools in moving toward a truly just resolution,
and give fresh hope to all the people of
Palestine and Israel who deserve to live in freedom and democracy.
It is hoped that JVP will take into account the
BNC statement that the price of admission of an
imaginary Palestinian “state” to the UN, may be
the real rights and futures of Palestinians to actual self-determination.
Further reading
Some recent key articles on the question of
Palestinian “statehood” and self-determination.
Reflecting an emerging consensus, most warn of
the dangers of the move, but those offering
support or qualified support are also included.
*
“<http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/04/2011413152522296883.html>Recognising
Palestine?,” Ali Abunimah, Al Jazeera (13 April 2011)
*
“<http://al-shabaka.org/policy-brief/politics/reclaiming-self-determination>Reclaiming
Self-Determination,” Ali Abunimah, Al Shabaka (21 May 2010)
*
“<http://electronicintifada.net/blog/ali-abunimah/exclusive-abbas-let-israel-keep-settlements-even-if-un-recognizes-state>Exclusive:
Abbas to let Israel keep settlements even if UN
recognizes “state”,” Ali Abunimah (17 May 2011)
*
“<http://electronicintifada.net/blog/ali-abunimah/why-does-anti-palestinian-reut-institute-support-un-recognition-palestinian-state>Why
does anti-Palestinian Reut Institute support UN
recognition of Palestinian “state”?,” Ali Abunimah (31 May 2011)
*
“<http://electronicintifada.net/content/case-un-recognition-palestine/10079>The
case for UN recognition of Palestine,” Victor Kattan (13 June 2011)
*
“<http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/06/20116168535227628.html>Palestinian
statehood and bypassing Israel,” Lamis Andoni, Al Jazeera (16 June 2011)
*
“<http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/07/201172112546428589.html>The
PA and PLO are flirting with irrelevancy,” Noura
Erekat, Al Jazeera (25 July 2011)
*
“<http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/aug/04/palestinians-secular-state>Palestinians
will soon come full circle,” Sam Bahour, The Guardian (4 August 2011)
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