Palestinians gain support to its UN status bid

RAMALLAH - The Palestinians expressed satisfaction on Wednesday over the international support to their bid to the United Nations to demand a recognition of a non-member observer state, despite the strong opposition from Israel and the United States.

The current bid is gaining a majority of support among the Palestinians, contrary to last year, when Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas failed to convince the UN Security Council to recognize the state of Palestine as a full member in the global organization.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas sits during a meeting with US Deputy Secretary of State William Burns in New York Nov 28, 2012. [Photo/Agencies]

Last year, the Palestinians were not able to gain a full international consensus when the bid was presented for voting, where they failed to gain the support of nine Security Council members out of 15, while the United States was also insisting to veto the bid.

Majority is guaranteed

But this time, the Palestinians decided bypass the Security Council and directly ask the UN General Assembly to vote for the bid, which will be to recognize a non-member observer state instead of a full member. The Palestinians are certain that this time they will harvest overwhelming majority.

Ibrahim Khreisha, the permanent representative of Palestine in the UN Human Rights Council told Xinhua in a telephone conversation that the success of the bid "is fully guaranteed and we will gain a majority that supports this right."

"The Palestinian leadership is confident this time that it will gain an overwhelming majority in the UN," said Khreisha, adding "We expect that 140 countries out of 193 UN member states will vote in favor of the bid, including 12 European countries as well as China and Russia."

A draft of the bid was on Tuesday distributed and reiterates on the implementation of the international resolutions related to ending the Israel-Palestinian conflict and based on the Arab Peace Initiative and the plan of the International Quartet Committee to resolve the Middle East conflicts.

The draft of the bid also asserted that the Palestinians are committed to the negotiations on the permanent status issues, mainly the refugees' right of return, Jerusalem, settlement, security and borders, and also committed to all related international resolutions.

Significant unity

The Palestinian bid to the UN gained a large majority of support among the Palestinians, including Islamic Hamas movement, which is a major rival to Abbas and has been ruling the Gaza Strip after it had violently seized control of it in June 2007.

On the eve of going to the UN, Abbas had received a phone call from Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal and expressed to him that Hamas backs his bid to the UN. Izzat al-Resheg, member of Hamas bureau affirmed that Meshaal spoke with Abbas on the phone and expressed support to the bid.

Hamas stance concerning the bid was different from its strategic position which always opposes the bid to the UN, mainly when Abbas went to the Security Council last year to demand a recognition of a state. However, this support came after the eight- day Israeli war on Hamas and Gaza militants.

Samer Anabtawi, the political science professor in the West Bank told Xinhua that the development of violence in the Gaza Strip and the surprising support of Hamas to Abbas bid "is a message of a political support to Abbas and his leadership and increased the world's support to him."

"The most important thing is that after Abbas succeeds in his bid to the UN and gain the recognition of a state, the ties between Hamas and Abbas have to improve and keep their unity in order to be able to confront Israel in the future until both rivals achieve a real partnership," said Anabtawi.

Larger moves

Promoting the position of the Palestinians in the UN from a non-member observer organization (The PLO) to a non-member observer state of Palestine, would help the Palestinians to intensify their diplomatic moves and efforts to gain an independent state on the territories occupied by Israel in 1967.

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat had told Xinhua on Wednesday that the success in the UN "will represent a great move towards ending the military occupation of the Palestinian territories and also will hold Israel morally and legally responsible and will establish a clear peace process in the region".

The bid in the UN will also enable the Palestinians to be a full member in the various 18 UN organizations as well as a member in The Hague International Court of Justice. Israeli officials slammed the bid and said that Israel will also go to The Hague courts and sue Hamas for its crimes.

"As long as Israel is keeping its violations against the Palestinians, it must expect anything from the Palestinian leadership through the legal track," said Erekat, adding "We first want to promote our diplomatic status and then we will be ready to legally defend our cause."

Rajab Abu Sereya, a Gaza-based political analyst said that Israel "is very anxious to see what are the consequences of applying to the UN because Israel knows in advance that there is a difference between the Palestinian position in the UN now and in the past and when the Palestinians have a recognized state".

However, the most important thing to Abu Sereya and other Palestinians "is not to keep the UN resolution of recognizing the state of Palestine as a non-member state on the shelves of the UN like other resolutions, because the aim of the resolution is seek a fair political solution to end the conflict".