UN-Satisfied about Palestinian "Recognition"

By Hani Azzam on December 2, 2012

This past week, the United Nations General Assembly voted to accept Palestine into the community as nations with “Non-Member Observer Status."

Excuse my lack of enthusiasm.

I don’t want to downplay the positives of this latest development in the Palestine-Israel saga. The resounding response of the international community indicates widespread support for Palestinian statehood and further isolates the U.S. and Israel on this specific issue. The final tally read 138 countries for the Palestinian state, 41 abstaining from the vote, and 9 casting their vote against recognizing the Palestinian state.

Furthermore, this new status allows the Palestinian Authority to bring Israel to the International Criminal Court for human rights violations if they so choose.

The jubilation in Ramallah is very much genuine and the Palestinian people have every right to take pride in this recognition. Their struggle for statehood has suffered setback after setback, largely imposed on them by Israel and the U.S., and thus international recognition of their aspirations despite U.S. and Israeli objections gives a sense of symbolic empowerment.

Symbolic, this word says it all.

In the eyes of the U.N., the state of Palestine, the close to five million people living within its borders, and its people’s aspirations of self-determination have only reached parity to the Vatican. Talk about damnation with faint praise.

Not to mention that the vote changes absolutely nothing on the ground. When the world woke up on November 30th, the Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands continued, Palestinians still lacked the most essential aspects of true statehood, the Palestinian government remained divided between Hamas in Gaza and Fatah in the West Bank, and 150 Palestinians still lay in Gazan morgues.

The successful UN bid only constitutes the first of baby steps that Mahmoud Abbas, Palestinian Authority president, must take if he truly hopes to achieve Palestinian independence under his presidency.

With Hamas’ political victory from its ceasefire with Israel and Abbas’ diplomatic triumph at the UN, the two must reconcile once and for all in order to present a united Palestinian front to the international community as well as Israel. Hopefully, this move will force the two parties to meet in the middle on their policy towards Israel. Abbas will feel empowered to end his complacency with Israel’s occupation of the West Bank while Hamas will loosen its increasingly authoritarian grip on the Gaza Strip.

Under these conditions, the PA must immediately hold new elections throughout its territories for both the Palestinian Legislative Council as well as executive positions. Only this will restore the institution’s legitimacy in the eyes of the Palestinian people.

Once this newly elected government sits in Ramallah, they can renew their struggle against Israel for real independence with the tools at hand.

In this hypothetical situation, the Palestinians will have a wider set of means to force concessions from the Israeli government. Charging Israel in the ICC will seriously undermine Israel’s massive effort to foster international complacency and even support for the occupation. Furthermore, a PA with the political mandate of the Palestinian people may have the power to withdraw from security agreements with Israel that entail disruption Palestinian demonstrations in the West Bank. While this sequence of events can only be described as hopeful, it would allow the Palestinians to gain a small inch of initiative in a struggle so often defined by their responses to Israeli actions.

Baby steps are only significant if they are going in the right direction.

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