By Stuart Reigeluth
The Palestinians have stood in line for decades, waiting to join the global family of Nations, waiting for international recognition, waiting, most of all super power the seal of approval.
There is a historical irony in South Sudan skip the line and becomes the 193rd country today, but Palestine can have its chance yet in September in the United Nations.
The UN's General Assembly consists of the 193 States now (including South Sudan soon) and needs 2/3 majority of the 128 States to approve the UN's Security Council recommendation concerning the Palestinian State, But if the United States imposes a movement at the UN's Security Council — as it is supposed to do — then the recommendation does not, of course, will proceed to the next phase.
What can the Palestinians? They could nudge to circumvent the Security Council with an appeal to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and argue that the near certain U.S. veto was issued other inappropriate reasons, but this is a non starter, since it would take a long time and Israel does not seem to respect the ICJ decisions under all circumstances. Anyone remember ' Separation ' wall?
There is then the ability to bypass the U.S. veto by invoking a "Uniting for peace" resolution, which was used in 1950 to circumvent the USSR vetoes during the Korea war. The UN's general Assembly could take collective action here say that a Security Council veto "fails to exercise its primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security".
Israel naturally does not want Palestinians to accede to the international family of Nations. Imagine a UN Member State (Israel), occupying a different UN Member State (Palestine) — how absurd?
But the situation is beyond the absurd: unlikely Israel respects the United Nations as an international institution and could care less about the State of Palestine, the peace with the Palestinians or other kind of recognition.
And the Palestinian people and the politicians realize that UN bid is not likely to lead to full UN membership, the Palestinian State and sovereignty or an end to the isrælske military occupation of the West Bank, lifting of the siege of Gaza and the passivity of a Palestinian capital — as symbolic as it may be — somewhere in whatever remains occupied East Jerusalem enclave.
But this is a great diplomatic achievement for Palestinians — the latest of many attempts to enter mainstream international politics as a recognized sovereign State. Arafat may have been corrupted and could not manage the various Palestinian factions, thanks in large part to Isræls divide and rule policy, but it was Arafat who put Palestine on the political map.
First, it was with the armed opposition to Arafat and his men fought against the expanding and bellicose Zionist entity suddenly had conquered all of Palestinian territory, the Golan Heights and Sinai Peninsula: in 1967 Israel routed the Arab armies; Pan-Arabism was dead or at least Nasserism was; and the Palestinians decided to take their fate into their own hands.
The Palestine Liberation organisation (PLO) was then expelled from Jordan during the ' Black September ' 1970, moved to Lebanon and started launching cross-border attacks against Israel.
Tit for tat mini-war of attrition endured through the 1970s. The PLO created a State-of-a-State in Beirut and was embroiled in the long Lebanese civil war. After Egypt signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1978, Israel turned its attention immediately to eradicate cross-border raids and invaded southern Lebanon.
Four years later, Arafat and the PLO were deported to Tunisia, where they withered until the outbreak of the Palestinian intifada in 1987 largely sustained by the nascent Islamic resistance movement (Hamas) in Gaza.
This confluence of geographical distance, betrayal by Arab leaders, Isræls complicity with Washington and the emergence of a single (Islamic) competitor who pushed Arafat to give up armed resistance and turn to diplomatic overtures coexistence with Israel. 1988 Algiers Declaration of independence followed shortly thereafter, and with the two-State solution.
As David Hirst discusses in his excellent book beware of small States (2010), what Arafat wanted most was international recognition — above all from the United States. Diplomacy paid and his PLO was recognized as the ' sole, legitimate representative ' for the Palestinian people, but the United States did not go as far as support for Palestinian State.
Other countries did. Some 115 States have already recognised the Palestine as a State, although Palestine as such does not exist — another of these so intrinsic to the Palestinian predicament absurdities.
UN recognises at least not States; recognition is achieved through bilateral ties, as in the Palestinian case, solidified and enhanced with trade. More than 20 years after Arafat pulled the Palestinians in the long process towards peace in Madrid (1990) and contract the Oslo agreements which have been very few fruits from Palestinian diplomacy.
-Stuart Reigeluth is managing editor of spin Magazine and working on the Council for European Palestinian relations in Brussels. Visit: www.revolve-magazine.com. He contributed this article to PalestineChronicle.com. (This article was first published in Gulf News-gulfnews.com)
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