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<div class="gmail-domain-border"></div><h1 class="gmail-reader-title">The UNGA Declaration on Palestinian Statehood as Performative Theater at Best</h1>September 17, 2025</div>
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<img src="https://www.palestinechronicle.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/UNGA-678x455.png" alt="" title="UNGA" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img" width="422" height="283" style="margin-right: 25px;">
United Nations General Assembly. (Photo: via Wikimedia Commons)
<p><strong>By <a href="https://www.palestinechronicle.com/writers/robert-inlakesh" title="Display all articles for Robert Inlakesh">Robert Inlakesh</a></strong></p>
<blockquote>
<h3>Realistically speaking, these
resolutions achieve nothing. Why? Because Israel only takes them as an
invitation to visit even greater violence on Palestinian civilians as a
result.</h3>
</blockquote>
<p>The recent adoption of a declaration,
calling for the \u201cpeaceful path\u201d to a \u201ctwo-State solution,\u201d has been
debated as a \u201cgame changer,\u201d yet represents little but a repetition of
the same votes we have seen for three decades. Not only is the language
employed minimizing and dismissive of Palestinian aspirations, but alone
it is just a pat on the back for complicit parties in the Gaza
genocide.</p>
<p>It is long past due that these
insulting UN resolutions, proposed by statesmen who care only about
protecting their own political capital, be not only called out, but
outright condemned as what they are.</p>
<p>While at first glance, the recent
United Nations General Assembly vote on the \u201cNew York Declaration\u201d \u2014
which passed 142 to 10, with 12 abstentions \u2014 appears on the face of it
to be a strong statement in favor of forwarding Palestinian statehood,
it means little on the ground.</p>
<p>Neo-conservative think tanks added
to the debate on this issue by claiming what the Foundation for Defense
of Democracies (FDD) branded a \u201cmisguided and ill-timed\u201d resolution,
while Israel predictably tried to argue that the UNGA was siding with
Hamas.</p>
<p>Yet, those of us who have followed
the issue for long enough remember the countless UNGA resolutions
adopted over the period of around 30 years now, all of which have looked
very similar in terms of the international vote and in terms of paving
the way to a Palestinian state based upon specific tenets of
international law.</p>
<p>This New York Declaration is more
of the same. It brings nothing new to the table, beyond a few key
points, which are that it urges Hamas to hand over all its weapons to
the Palestinian Authority and allow for an international peacekeeping
force to be deployed into the Gaza Strip. So let\u2019s start by looking at
these points.</p>
<h4><strong>The Day After in Gaza and \u201cNon-Violence\u201d</strong></h4>
<p>The passing of the UNGA\u2019s
declaration on establishing a Palestinian state uses the language of
non-violence and labels the day after in Gaza a \u201cpeace day.\u201d Its
sanitized political language, evidently employed in order to capture the
votes of Western nations who engage in this exact \u201ctwo-State\u201d
sophistry, leads it to contradiction.</p>
<p>While claiming it seeks
non-violence and that non-State actors should be disarmed or
discouraged, it also states that it intends to pursue the assembly of a
multinational militarized force to operate in Gaza. The declaration
states that this initiative would be followed through on at the UNSC,
which means that the US will simply veto it if it so chooses.</p>
<p>Considering that the UNSC passes a
resolution allowing for an international force to deploy into the Gaza
Strip, the question arises of what strategy they will be pursuing there.
Will they coordinate with Israel? Will they work with the Palestinian
Authority (PA) on disarming Hamas? Will they stick to the doctrine of
non-violence if they are murdered by Israeli forces?</p>
<p>To briefly answer these questions,
we can look to the UNIFIL example in southern Lebanon as a comparable
model in the event that this even occurs. These UN forces coordinate
with Israel, yet are still targeted in bombing attacks and refuse to
defend themselves. While they largely stay away from Hezbollah, the
mission in Gaza would have to facilitate a PA takeover, meaning they
will undoubtedly be forced to carry out missions against Palestinians.
Even if Hamas disarms, the other resistance groups are unlikely to do
so.</p>
<p>So, in other words, this UN force
is not there to combat Israel; it would be there in order to force the
Palestinian resistance to give up their struggle in Gaza.</p>
<p>Despite this, the Israelis have not
even entertained allowing this for a second and are now responding to
this symbolic declaration by escalating their bombardment of Gaza City,
expanding their illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank and
threatening de jure annexation.</p>
<p>We are now less than a month away
from the two-year mark for this genocide in the Gaza Strip, yet the
declaration talks about \u201ctargeted action\u201d against individuals as its
answer, then larps on about a political process that would need to
include Israel, the same Israeli government that vows to eliminate the
possibility of a Palestinian state and is carrying out a genocide.</p>
<p>Targeted action has already been
taken by a number of states. In fact, until the Trump administration
reversed the moves, the Biden administration had applied targeted
sanctions against specific settlers living in the occupied West Bank.
This was done while Herzi Halevi was Israel\u2019s chief of staff for its
military; he himself is a West Bank settler and was commanding the Gaza
genocide, prior to Eyal Zamir\u2019s takeover.</p>
<p>This declaration is oxymoronic,
attempting to take a neutral approach to a settler-colonial entity
committing a genocide and advocating the higher-ground position of
non-violence, while advocating sending in a militarized force.</p>
<p>What does such an international
military mission actually mean to do? Is it set out to force the Israeli
army to withdraw from the occupied territories? If so, how exactly does
that work without violence or at least the threat of force? Also,
non-State actors have a right, enshrined in the Fourth Geneva
Convention, to armed struggle, and according to the United States and
other Israeli allies like Germany, the Palestinian Authority is also a
non-State actor. Keep in mind that the declaration seeks to stamp out
non-State actors.</p>
<p>The declaration also talks about
de-radicalizing school curricula. This again is targeting Palestinians
and not Israelis, despite the letter of the word in the resolution.
Reading between the lines here, the Israelis will not even consider this
declaration as valid, or stop blocking humanitarian goods from entering
Gaza, let alone change their textbooks, while on the other hand, the
PA, reliant on Western aid to continue operating, is the only one open
to such a step.</p>
<p>When it comes to the question of
so-called de-radicalization in the Gaza Strip, where are these changes
supposed to be implemented \u2014 is UNRWA supposed to change its textbooks
further?</p>
<p>The reason for interrogating these
points is simple: it leads to answers that undermine the rhetoric
employed in the first place.</p>
<h4><strong>Taking Moral High Ground</strong></h4>
<p>The people of Gaza are enduring
genocide, a Holocaust. These resolutions and declarations, that parrot
the tired old discourse of a non-existent path to a so-called \u201ctwo-State
solution,\u201d are not only simply symbolic, they are outright insulting to
the victims of Israel\u2019s brutality.</p>
<p>When the history books are written
and people look at these declarations, they will read no differently
than if a neutral resolution were issued during the Nazi Holocaust.
Meanwhile, the only ones doing anything to apply real pressure will be
noted. To this effect, the only ones we can say have acted to the full
extent of their power to bring the genocide to a close have been the
Ansarallah-led Yemeni government in Sana\u2019a.</p>
<p>Other than this, the only other
nation to have acted with force to pressure the Israelis to stop what
Benjamin Netanyahu calls his \u201cseven-front war\u201d is the Islamic Republic
of Iran. Then there are non-State actors, the most notable of which has
been Hezbollah, which also used its power to pressure Israel to stop and
suffered immensely for it.</p>
<p>What has this so-called
\u201cinternational community\u201d done to those who have actually taken solid
measures against Israel? The US attacked Iran, and the UN\u2019s
secretary-general, Antonio Guterres, refused to even label the assault
as a violation of the UN Charter, failing to even rise to the occasion
in the way Kofi Annan did when the US attacked Iraq.</p>
<p>This same \u201cinternational community\u201d
has condemned Yemen\u2019s government and watched on as the US led a
multinational naval mission to bomb the Yemeni authorities into
submission, in a failed attempt to force Ansarallah to abandon its
military pressure on the Israelis. Saudi Arabia, which, along with
France, was behind the New York Declaration, has even used its air
defenses to defend Israel and permits free trade with the Israelis.</p>
<p>Then, when the Israelis murdered
5,000 people in Lebanon, the US President at the time, Joe Biden,
celebrated Israel\u2019s conduct, including the assassination of Hezbollah
Secretary-General, Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah, which Israel admitted was
predicted to kill 300 Lebanese civilians in order to achieve.</p>
<p>There could also be the honorable
mention of some other nations that cut off ties and trade deals with
Israel, while the South African government did indeed take Israel to the
International Court of Justice for genocide.</p>
<p>Realistically speaking, these
resolutions achieve nothing. Why? Because Israel only takes them as an
invitation to visit even greater violence on Palestinian civilians as a
result and will not even entertain talking about a so-called \u201ctwo-State
solution.\u201d</p>
<p>If this international community was
truly concerned about a just peace and really implementing a two-state
solution, the formula is very simple: a full international economic
embargo on Israel, followed by military intervention if they still fail
to comply. It suffices to say, this isn\u2019t even on the cards. Why?
Because these resolutions are performative, meant only to benefit those
morally bankrupt political forces behind writing them.</p>
<p>This brings us to the next natural
part of this conversation, which is Western recognition of Palestine at
the UN. Again, performative. Israel is currently working on West Bank
annexation and even threatening to dissolve the PA, while the likes of
the UK continue to sell weapons to the Israelis and even welcomed its
genocidal President Isaac Herzog just last week.</p>
<p>Actions like these are similar to
all of the meaningless resolutions adopted by the largely complicit
Arab League and Islamic conferences; most of the nations signing these
declarations and resolutions are knee-deep in the blood of Palestinian
children. Some will say that this rhetoric is harsh; it\u2019s not. Many of
these international actors deserve a lot more than harsh words; they
deserve to be held criminally liable and languish in maximum-security
incarceration for the rest of their existence.</p>
<p><em>(The Palestine Chronicle)</em></p>
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<p><br></p>
<p><span><em>\u2013 Robert Inlakesh is a journalist, writer, and documentary
filmmaker. He focuses on the Middle East, specializing in Palestine. He
contributed this article to The Palestine Chronicle. </em></span></p></div>
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