Palestinian Territory

Palestinian Setback

Representatives for the United Nations recently claimed that the United Kingdom, France, and Columbia will withhold from voting on Palestine’s bid for statehood if it indeed goes to a vote in the Security Council. Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas, has announced that Palestine will not settle for a status upgrade to an “observer state”. Palestine’s foreign minister, Riyad al-Maliki, has announced that although Palestine won its membership into the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), it will not seek to further its status at any UN body other than at the UN Security Council.

The news that France will not support Palestine’s bid for statehood is quite inconsistency with France’s actions in the last few days. France’s diplomat at the UNESCO General Conference voted in support of Palestine’s bid for membership into UNESCO and even shouted in celebration after the voting results were announced. It would appear that perhaps the notion many are having is correct, in that France and the UK are refusing to back Palestine in fear of the backlash the US will have to face if the US is the only state to veto Palestine’s bid. Perhaps if the US has some fellow states supporting its argument that granting statehood would damage the peace process, then it would not have to face the wrath of many Muslim states on its own when the US vetoes the bill. Palestine seems to be quite diplomatic in its approach for statehood; the only state that has any real opposition to its goal is Israel. Is the US’s relationship with Israel really strong enough for the US to want to inhibit another state’s peaceful goal? It seems that many Muslim and Arab states would be provoked by this, which could result in even more resentment towards the US and Israel. The fact that the US has cut funding to UNESCO because of its support of Palestine’s noble and righteous mission is quite childish. Palestine has a goal; if it simply upgraded its status in the UN to an Observer State it would be compromising its values and integrity. With the backing of most of the middle-east, it appears that Palestine will not give up without a fight. Its approach might be diplomatic at the moment, but that could all change in an instant.

Liberal

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/11/2011113184841560847.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-15587250

November 8, 2011 at 3:57 pm