Bras\u00edlia \u2013 During an address at the opening of the 66th United Nations General Assembly, the Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff regretted the fact that Palestine is not among the countries attending the meeting. Upon greeting the representatives of South Sudan, which is attending for the first time ever, Dilma said she was sorry that the Palestinian nation was absent.<\/p>\n
\u201cBrazil already recognizes the Palestinian State as such, within its 1967 borders, in keeping with the UN\u2019s resolutions. Just like most countries in this assembly, we believe that the time has come for Palestine to be fully represented here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dilma\u2019s mention of Palestine was met with applause from those in attendance. Brazil granted official recognition to the existence of the Palestinian State in December last year, when former president Luiz In\u00e1cio Lula da Silva sent a message of recognition to the Palestinian National Authority (PNA).<\/p>\n
The PNA\u2019s entry into the UN is one of the controversial points of the meeting underway. The proposal to be submitted by the PNA president Mahmoud Abbas is met with support from most member-countries and calls on the UN to recognize the Palestinian State within the borders preceding the Six Day War, in 1967.<\/p>\n
The governments of the United States and Israel have already manifested themselves against the proposal. The government of Israel has stated that it does not accept the demand of the PNA, which wants the city of Jerusalem to be divided. According to the Israelis, the religious capital of Israel is indivisible and this position is not liable to change.<\/p>\n
The United States government announced that it will vote against Abbas\u2019 request because it is believes in the seeking of agreement and consensus. The matter should be voted by the Security Council. To be approved, the request must obtain nine affirmative votes out 15, but the United States has vetoing rights.<\/p>\n
Dilma highlighted that the recognition is crucial for the quest for peace in the region. \u201cThe recognition is a legitimate right of the Palestinian people to sovereignty and self-determination. It increases the likelihood of lasting peace in the Middle East. Only a free, sovereign Palestine will enable Israel\u2019s legitimate aspirations for peace with its neighbours, safe borders and political stability in the region that surrounds it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Peaceful coexistence between Jews and Palestinians in Brazil was mentioned as a for instance by president Dilma. \u201cI come from a country in which Arab and Jewish descendants are fellow countrymen and coexist in harmony, as it should be,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Repression<\/b> <\/p>\n
She also opposed violent repression of the so called \u201cArab Spring\u201d protests. \u201cWe strongly disavow the brutal repression that victimizes civil populations. We are convinced that to the international community, the use of force must always be the last resort,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Dilma stands for a more effective action of the UN\u2019s in solving these conflicts. \u201cThe nations gathered here must find a legitimate, effective way to help societies which claim for reform, while not preventing their citizens from leading the way. The quest for peace and safety in the world cannot be limited to intervention in extreme situations.\u201d<\/p>\n
The president claimed that Brazil is favourable to the solution proposed by the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, who preaches \u201cconflict prevention.\u201d \u201cWe support the secretary general in its effort to engage the United Nations in conflict prevention through the tireless exercise of democracy and promotion of development,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe world is now suffering the painful consequences of interventions that have caused the conflicts to worsen, enabling terrorism to infiltrate places where it did not exist before, inaugurating new cycles of violence, multiplying the numbers of civilian casualties. Much has been said of the possibility of protecting them, but little has been said of the responsibility while protecting them. These are concepts that we must develop together,\u201d said Dilma.<\/p>\n
She highlighted the fact that Brazil is a nation of immigrants, home to many families of Arab origin. \u201cEver since late 2010 we have witnessed a succession of popular demonstrations that have come to be known as the Arab Spring. Brazil is the adoptive home to many immigrants from that part of the world. The Brazilians are sympathetic to the quest for an ideal that does not belong to any particular culture, because it is universal: freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dilma Rousseff stated that the recognition of their state is a legitimate wish of Palestinians and is crucial to achieving peace in the region. She also criticized repression of Arab protests.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2315,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[106],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-39351","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-foreign-affairs"},"wps_subtitle":"Dilma Rousseff stated that the recognition of their state is a legitimate wish of Palestinians and is crucial to achieving peace in the region. She also criticized repression of Arab protests.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39351","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2315"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39351"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39351\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}