Porto Alegre – Palestine’s approval as a non-member state of the United Nations (UN) puts Israel in the position of a state occupying another state, instead of other territories, and thus enables Palestinians to call on international organizations to impose sanctions for the occupation of an internationally recognized State.
To the politicians and historians interviewed by ANBA during the Free Palestine World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, this is the chief practical modification stemming from the vote cast last Thursday (29th) by the UN General Assembly, at which the Palestinians had 138 favourable votes, 41 abstentions and only nine votes against its acceptance as a UN observer state.
“This will give us a chance to become full members of all UN agencies and the power to influence international organizations,” said Nabil Shaat, the Fatah’s commissioner for International Relations, who is representing the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) president Mahmoud Abbas at the event. “This backs our claim that our land is occupied and Israel must leave; they can’t stay forever. This brings some hope to our people from a political standpoint. We don’t want to fall back on violence, this has been a political achievement,” he said.
“Israel is an established state with no defined borders, but there are United Nations resolutions in this respect, and the peace agreements are based on said resolutions,” said Salah Elqataa, the minister-counsellor to the Palestinian ambassador in Brasília. “We are recognized by 138 countries of the international community at the United Nations General Assembly. We have been recognized by the absolute majority of the countries, that is what’s most important,” he said.
To the Palestinian representative Fayez Saqqa, international recognition of Palestine as a state is only the beginning when it comes to creating an actual Palestinian State. “We are aware that this vote will not put an end to Israeli occupation overnight; we will have to keep fighting against the occupation in the realm of international organizations,” he noted.
According to him, the next step is the recognition of Palestine as a full member state of the United Nations Security Council. “We will submit our bid to the Security Council next year, but it should go through the General Assembly, and unfortunately we will see another veto from the United States,” he regretted. “Still, we will submit the bid, and in case it gets rejected we will keep submitting it in the years to come. It is our right and we will achieve it,” he said.
Emir Sader, a Brazilian social scientist and political scientist of Lebanese ascent, believes the vote complicates Israel’s position as an occupying state in Palestine. “It is not just a recognition as a UN non-member state; it is a recognition on 1967 borders, the recognition of an autonomous, independent, sovereign state,” he said.
He claims Palestine’s current status allows its government to make new claims. “I believe that once it has been recognized as a state, Palestine has the right to make a claim for an airport, for instance, which could be located on the border with Jordan, and other elements which are inherent to a state,” he said.
“For instance: it’s absurd for Israel to collect taxes in Palestine and threaten not to return them. I believe the new legal status allows for claims and international recognition. For instance, it allows Palestine to require that Israel be punished and suspended from international organizations for not observing the UN’s resolutions, and not recognizing the Palestinian State,” he explained.
To the historian and critic André Gattaz, author of the book “A Guerra da Palestina, da criação do Estado de Israel à Nova Intifada” (free translation: The War of Palestine, from the Creation of the State of Israel to the New Intifada), the main consequence of the UN’s ruling is that more countries will now support the creation of an actual State of Palestine.
“In terms of the practical lives of Palestinians, to me the conflict is most likely to be solved when the Israeli population itself starts to become aware that things cannot remain as they are forever, and that they themselves will not be safe and in peace as long as things remain the same,” he said.
“I believe there might be an Arab Spring-style movement in Israel if the majority of the population decides that the best solution to the conflict is the creation of a Palestinian State,” he said.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
