U.N. Recognizes Palestine as State; U.S. & Israel Set To Ignore U.N. |
|
| By: Dennis Trainor Jr Thursday November 29, 2012 6:47 pm | |
U.N. Recognizes Palestine as State; U.S. & Israel Set To Ignore U.N. |
|
| By: Dennis Trainor Jr Thursday November 29, 2012 6:47 pm | |
About MyFDL
MyFDL is the community site of progressive political blog Firedoglake. Anyone can participate by writing a diary, commenting on others’ diaries, or joining groups to find other people in your area. Content posted to MyFDL is the opinion of the author alone, and should not be attributed to Firedoglake.
News. Community. Activism.
Firedoglake is a member-supported organization.
Help us continue our work for as little as $45/year.
Tweet
3 Comments
Per the AP nine nations voted “no”: Israel, U.S., Canada, Czech Republic, Panama, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, and Palau. Those Pacific Island nations “typically support the U.S. and Israel at the U.N. on key General Assembly resolutions,” according to the AP.
Susan Rice, calling the resolution objectionable because it is “unilateral,” said:
There is no obligation for any nation to recognize Palestine as a state and establish normal diplomatic relations just because the UN General Assembly granted Palestine non-member-state observer status. And formal recognition of Palestine is something that the US can now dangle over both Palestine and Israel in negotiations.
What the vote does do is give Palestine limited standing in a number of international institutions in which it can lodge formal complaints against Israel.
Juan Cole in Palestinian legal strategy against Israel: the real prize is Europe has the details about how Palestine’s standing under international law has been strengthened.
Amid the US recitation of Israel’s talking points in its explanation of its vote, there was one significant departure from the Israeli script. The US joined with those who voted for the resolution or abstained in calling for immediate negotiations between Israel and Palestine directly with no preconditions. That is an informal recognition of a Palestinian state in that it does not presume that some other state, say Jordan, has the authority to negotiate on Palestine’ behalf.
What will move the US position more than complaining about is continuing to organize boycotts of settler-made products (you listening, Ed Schultz) and massive divestitures of Israeli holdings by public institutions, even in funds that pool those securities with other international securities.