UN majority agrees Palestinians must live in freedom, dignity on their own land with sovereignty, self-determination rights

Dr. Hanan Ashrawi 

Urgency of the moment demands full engagement in “ending the cruel and illegal occupation”

Editing by Carolyn Bennett

The question the international community should ask, Hanan Ashrawi wrote this week at the Guardian, “is not who wants negotiations, but who wants solutions.

The answer is clear – one side wants to negotiate a permanent solution,  the other side wants permanent negotiations.

Who is Hanan Ashrawi?

Dr. Hanan Ashrawi is a Palestinian politician and peace negotiator “known for straight-talking diplomacy.” She is one of the most prominent speakers for the Palestinian people.

Born in 1946 in Ramallah (a town in the West Bank, administered as part of the British Mandate of Palestine from 1920 to 1948) into a family that included parents, Daoud Mikhail, a founding member of the Palestine Liberation Organization; a devout Christian mother of Lebanese descent; and relatives of Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Baptist and Muslim affiliation, Hanan Ashrawi is among few who have as visibly represented the Palestinian people.

Palestinian legislator, activist, and scholar Hanan Daoud Khalil Ashrawi was an important leader during the First Intifada. She has served as the official representative for the Palestinian Delegation to the Middle East peace process, since 1996 elected repeatedly to the Palestinian Legislative Council, and until 1998 minister of higher education for the Palestinian Authority. Dr. Ashrawi is a member of Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad’s Third Way Party and the first woman elected to the Palestinian National Council.

She serves on the Advisory Board of several international and local organizations including the World Bank Middle East and North Africa (MENA), United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD) and the International Human Rights Council.

Dr. Ashrawi took academic credentials in Medieval and Comparative Literature (doctorate at the University of Virginia-United States) and in English (undergraduate and graduate degrees at the American University of Beirut, Lebanon). 

A

shrawi continued her Guardian article the day before the General Assembly voted overwhelmingly for upgrading Palestinian status in the United Nations.

“We are farther today from having a serious peace partner than at any time since we began this [peace] ‘process,’” she said. 

[Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, at best, views negotiations in the context of photo opportunities and handshakes to improve his international image and keep public opinion quiet. At worst, he exploits the ‘process’ to continue settlement expansion, the annexation of Jerusalem, and the ‘enjoyment’ of an American-led legal cover to enable him to act with impunity. 

“This, in fact, represents a severe provocation to our people who have been on the receiving end of such an enormous injustice without responding violently or illegally. While we have met our commitments, Israel continues to renege on its obligations and to build on the 22 percent of the remaining Palestinian land designated for the free sovereign state of Palestine.

“… Rather than being perceived as a substitute for negotiations, our efforts are consistent with the international community’s objective of achieving a peaceful solution whereby Palestine and Israel can live side by side in peace and security.

“… [Countries choosing] not to vote with Palestine will find themselves on the wrong side of history ─ let alone morality, justice and international law.

“Israel is deliberately destroying the two-state solution, as well as the chances for peace and security in the region and beyond.

“It is high time that [wavering] countries recognize the urgency of the moment and become fully engaged in ─

ending the cruel and illegal occupation and 

enabling the Palestinians to exercise their right to self-determination and sovereignty and to live in freedom and dignity on their own land. 

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said yesterday to the 193-member UN General Assembly ─

The moment has arrived for the world to say clearly: enough of aggression, settlements and occupation.

Issue a birth certificate of the reality of the State of Palestine.

The window of opportunity is narrowing and time is quickly running out.

T

he United Nations General Assembly then voted overwhelmingly to accord Palestine ‘Non-Member Observer State’ status.

Vote on Status of Palestine at United Nations: The draft resolution on the Status of Palestine at the United Nations (document A/67/L.28) was adopted by a recorded vote of 138 in favor to 9 against, with 41 abstentions, as follows:

YES votes

Afghanistan, Algeria, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belarus, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Chile, China, Comoros, Congo, Costa Rica, Côte d’Ivoire, Cuba, Cyprus, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Denmark, Djibouti, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Finland, France, Gabon, Gambia, Georgia, Ghana, Greece, Grenada, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Honduras, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Lebanon, Lesotho, Libya, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mexico, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Portugal, Qatar, Russian Federation, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Sao Tome and Principe, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Solomon Islands, Somalia, South Africa, South Sudan, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Swaziland, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Tajikistan, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Tuvalu, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, United Republic of Tanzania, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Viet Nam, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe.

NO votes

Canada, Czech Republic, Israel, Marshall Islands, Micronesia (Federated States of), Nauru, Palau, Panama, United States

ABSTENTIONS (tantamount to no)

Albania, Andorra, Australia, Bahamas, Barbados, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Cameroon, Colombia, Croatia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Estonia, Fiji, Germany, Guatemala, Haiti, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malawi, Monaco, Mongolia, Montenegro, Netherlands, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Poland, Republic of Korea, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Rwanda, Samoa, San Marino, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Togo, Tonga, United Kingdom, Vanuatu.

ABSENTEES (carelessly tantamount to no)

Equatorial Guinea, Kiribati, Liberia, Madagascar, Ukraine.

Sources and notes

This episode of One on One can be seen from Saturday, September 26, at the following times GMT: Saturday: 0130, 1630; Sunday: 0430; Monday: 0300, 1230.

http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/oneonone/2009/09/200992282911940941.html

Peace prize for Ashrawi─ Palestinian MP and human rights activist Hanan Ashrawi has won the prestigious Sydney Peace Prize. Last Modified: 08 Aug 2003 17:49 GMT

http://www.worldtrek.org/odyssey/mideast/ashrawi/ashrawibio.html

Wikipedia notes, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanan_Ashrawi

Ramallah

Ramallah is a town in the West Bank, adjacent to the town of Al-Bīrah (east) and north of Jerusalem. Administered as part of the British mandate of Palestine (1920–48).

Ramallah was part of the West Bank territory taken by Arab forces in the first of the Arab-Israeli wars (1948–49) and subsequently annexed by Jordan. After the Six-Day War of 1967, Ramallah was under Israeli control as part of the occupied West Bank territory until coming under the administration of the Palestinian Authority (PA) in the wake of the 1993 Oslo Accords.

It later became the centre of PA administration in the West Bank. As an ancient settlement, Ramallah has buildings incorporating masonry from the time of Herod the Great (reigned 37–4 BCE), but no complete structure antedates the Crusades of the 11th century. Britannica note

First Intifada

In December 1987, Israeli soldiers in the Gaza Strip killed an Arab youth engaged in a protest. Widespread unrest broke out in the Israeli-occupied territories, leading to 21 deaths in two weeks.

This was the start of the intifada (‘shaking’), a wave of Palestinian protests and Israeli reprisals that lent new urgency to Middle East diplomacy.

Israeli military rule of the West Bank then hardened and the Fatah faction of the PLO from bases in Lebanon stepped up actions. Britannica note

General Assembly Votes Overwhelmingly to Accord Palestine ‘Non-Member Observer State’ Status in United Nations

Objective to ‘Breathe New Life’ into Peace Process, Says Palestinian President

Israel’s Delegate Counters, Without Direct Negotiations, Peace Remains ‘Out of Reach’

General Assembly GA/11317, November 29, 2012, Department of Public Information • News and Media Division • New York, Sixty-seventh General Assembly

General Assembly Plenary 44th & 45th Meetings (PM & Night), http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2012/ga11317.doc.htm

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Bennett's books are available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY] • See also: World Pulse: Global Issues through the eyes of Women: http://www.worldpulse.com/ http://www.worldpulse.com/pulsewire http://www.facebook.com/#!/bennetts2ndstudy

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When officials of a great nation render its people as detainees to torture chambers to the wrong side of history

Palestinian President
Mahmoud Abbas's standing ovation at UNGA

United States’ shameful vote against Palestinians unsuccessful in deciding their triumph  
Editing by Carolyn Bennett

What happens between the Jordan River and the shores of the Mediterranean is central to security and well-being of humankind. [UN General Assembly President]

Resolution to Grant Palestine Non-member Observer State Status in the United Nations (New York), November 29, 2012

Celebration at UN

Thirty-nine nations voted yes.

Forty-one ducked

Albania, Andorra, Australia, Bahamas, Barbados, Bosnia/Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Cameroon, Colombia, Croatia, Dem. Rep. of Congo, Estonia, Fiji, Germany, Guatemala, Haiti, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malawi, Monaco, Mongolia, Montenegro, Netherlands, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Poland, Korea, Moldova, Romania, Rwanda, Samoa, San Marino, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Macedonia, Togo, Tonga, UK, Vanuatu

Nine voted regress

Shame

The United States, Israel, Panama, Palau, Canada, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Czech Republic, Micronesia

Wall of Shame

Secretary General Ban Ki-moon speaking before the UN General Assembly vote said, “I believe that Palestinians have the right to their own state. I believe that Israel has the right to peace and security [and] we must give new impetus to our collective efforts.”

Reason for hope, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said ─

“Your support will send a promising message to millions of Palestinians... that justice is possible, and that there is a reason to be hopeful. That the peoples of the world do not accept the occupation.”

Geopolitics
Middle East
Red Sea

President of the sixty-seventh session of the United Nations General Assembly Vuk Jeremić said, “Both [peoples] come from a land that has been almost continuously tormented by conflict for many centuries, with countless victims on all sides. The strife has not abated during the sixty-seven years of this Organization’s existence ─ despite the fact that it came into being ‘to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war.’

“Notwithstanding the valiant efforts of some of the most courageous statesmen of the 20th century, a negotiated comprehensive settlement enabling Israel and Palestine to live side by side in peace and security has yet to materialize. And so we still witness the enmity, estrangement, and mistrust as parents continue to bury their children.

Gaza

In today’s globalizing, interconnected world, what happens between the river Jordan and the shores of the Mediterranean has become the key to the security and well-being of the entire mankind.

… History will judge this day to have been fraught with significance but whether it will come to be looked upon as a step in the right direction on the road to peace will depend on how we [conduct] ourselves in its wake. …

Middle East

… Allow me to extend an appeal … to my dear friends from Palestine and Israel

·         to work for peace;

·         to negotiate in good faith;

·         to succeed in reaching the historical settlement.

Sources and notes

http://www.un.org/en/ga/president/67/

“UN general assembly recognizes Palestinian state – live updates Live• UN approves ‘nonmember observer state’ plan ─ • Resolution approved 138-9 with U.S. and Canada against,”  (Matthew Weaver and Tom McCarthy, guardian.co.uk) Thursday November 29, 2012,

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/middle-east-live/2012/nov/29/egypt-crisis-morsi-constitution-live

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is greeted by a standing ovation before he speaks to the United Nations General Assembly before the body votes on a resolution to upgrade the status of the Palestinian Authority to a nonmember observer state November 29, 2012.(AFP Photo / Stan Honda), (38.5Mb) embed video

“The UN General Assembly has voted to upgrade Palestinians’ diplomatic status to a ‘non-member observer state,’ thus implicitly recognizing a Palestinian state. This comes despite strong opposition from the U.S. and Israel.” http://rt.com/news/un-palestinians-non-member-832/

“UN implicitly recognizes Palestinian statehood” November 29-30, 2012

http://rt.com/news/un-palestinians-non-member-832/

Mahmoud Abbas (Wikipedia note)

Mahmoud Abbas (Arabic: مَحْمُود عَبَّاس‎, Maḥmūd ʿAbbās; born March 26, 1935) was chosen on November 23, 2008, by the Palestine Liberation Organization’s Central Council to be the President of the State of Palestine, a position he had held unofficially since May 8, 2005.

President Abbas served as the first Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority from March to October 2003. He resigned this position citing ‘internal incitement’ against his government and lack of support from Israel and the United States.

Before becoming prime minister, Mahmoud Abbas led the PLO’s Negotiations Affairs Department. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahmoud_Abbas

The Jordan River rises on the slopes of Mount Hermon on the Syrian-Lebanese border and flows southward through northern Israel to the Sea of Galilee and then divides Israel and the Israeli-occupied West Bank on the west from Jordan on the east before emptying into the Dead Sea at an elevation of about 1,312 feet (400 meters) below sea level.

With the lowest elevation in the world, the Jordan River is more than 223 miles (360 km) long but because its course meanders the actual distance between its source and the Dead Sea is less than 124 miles (200 km).

Geopolitics and waterways from No Land an Island No People Apart

Red Sea

The Red Sea separates the coasts of Egypt, The Sudan, and Eritrea (Africa) to the west from those of Saudi Arabia and Yemen (Asia) to the east; and with its connection to the Mediterranean Sea via the Suez Canal, the Red Sea is one of the most heavily traveled waterways in the world, carrying maritime traffic between Europe and Asia.

This narrow strip of water—maximum width 190 miles, greatest depth 9,974 feet (3,040 meters), area approximately 174,000 square miles (450,000 square km)—extends southeastward from Suez, Egypt, for about 1,200 miles (1,930 km) to the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which connects with the Gulf of Aden and then with the Arabian Sea. Geologically, the Gulfs of Suez and Aqaba (Elat) are considered the northern extension of the same structure. Red Sea name derives from the color changes observed in its waters (Britannica rev.).

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Bennett's books are available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY] • See also: World Pulse: Global Issues through the eyes of Women: http://www.worldpulse.com/ http://www.worldpulse.com/pulsewire http://www.facebook.com/#!/bennetts2ndstudy

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Mid-East “new diplomacy” rising — Bennis

Beyond Palestinian-Israeli impasse to a diplomacy rooted in international law, human rights, equality for all

Two articles excerpted, edited with re-reporting by Carolyn Bennett

Ancient Middle East Britannica image

What is essential after 20 years of failed U.S. diplomacy, says Institute for Policy Studies Fellow Phyllis Bennis, is “some means of moving the debate out of Washington and into the United Nations.”

“The challenge to and overthrow of U.S.-backed dictators across the Arab world is changing landscapes across the region and in countries far from the Middle East,” Bennis wrote in an article published on Wednesday, before President Mahmoud Abbas made the case for full Palestinian membership at the United Nations. “The notion spreading throughout the ‘Arab Spring’ — that a revolutionary process could contain both an internal focus (the shaking up of old social hierarchies) and an external focus (aimed at shaking out old leaders and old ideas) — had its roots in the first Palestinian uprising, the socially inclusive, grassroots-based and non-violent intifada that began a generation ago in 1987. So it should surprise no one that Palestinians are still engaged in nonviolent mobilization that aims both to end Israeli occupation, settlement, and apartheid, and to democratize and hold accountable its own internal leadership.

Arabia Britannica image

… For the first time since before World War II, the United States cannot rely on sycophantic Arab dictators willing to viciously suppress their own people in order to sign friendly oil contracts and make nice to Israel, while maintaining the good ties to Washington that keep the stream of arms sales and foreign aid flowing.

For the first time, some Arab regimes are being forced to at least partly take into account popular opinion.

… [I]n such a heated and high-profile atmosphere, a U.S. veto [of Palestinian full membership in the UN] will almost certainly lead to significant diplomatic challenges for Washington’s military, resource, economic and political relations.

After the Palestinian president’s Friday speech before the UN General Assembly, Bennis wrote this.

“There was a potential game changer in Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas’s speech …  that  marks the end of the 20-year-long U.S.-backed failed peace process and the potential beginning of a whole new approach to Palestinian-Israeli diplomacy — one based on international law, human rights and equality for all.

No longer is the failed U.S.-controlled ‘peace process’ the only diplomatic game in town.

The Palestinian application for recognition as a full Member State of the United Nations places the diplomacy squarely where it has always belonged — in the UN, not in Washington. …

Middle East incl Occupied Territories Britannica image

“T]here is now at least the basis for laying a new diplomatic foundation, different from the current approach that maintains Israel’s huge disparity in power and accepts Israeli ‘red lines.’  … This could mean something entirely new — diplomacy grounded in international law and human rights that ends occupation, ensures the right of refugees to return to their homes, and replaces apartheid with equality for all.…

“… [T]he challenge is to make this new opportunity real and to take maximum advantage of it, not to let it dissolve into endless bureaucracy. There is a serious danger that the UN Security Council, rather than moving to schedule a rapid vote with its inevitable U.S. veto, will instead move to create a committee, to launch an investigation, to commission a report… and otherwise move to simply bury the Palestinian application in the labyrinthine mumbo-jumbo of UN diplo-speak. …”

But maybe, she says —

“… Maybe some governments will take seriously their obligation to protect an occupied population suffering under decades of occupation, apartheid and dispossession.

“Just maybe this will mark the beginning of a different approach to achieving Palestinian rights and equality — with the world, not the United States, as the ‘honest broker.’

“… Twenty years of a U.S.-controlled process designed to maintain Israeli power and privilege is over. ‘It is enough.’”

Sources and notes

“Bye-Bye ‘Peace Process -- Palestine Comes to the UN” (Phyllis Bennis), September 21, 2011, http://www.ips-dc.org/articles/bye-bye_peace_process_palestine_comes_to_the_un

“Abbas at the United Nations a Game Changer? Maybe” (Phyllis Bennis), September 23, 2011, http://www.ips-dc.org/articles/abbas_at_the_united_nations_a_game_changer_mayb

Also listen on CounterSpin:  “Phyllis Bennis on Palestinian statehood — Mainstream reporting on the Palestinian bid for UN recognition regularly employs loaded language in portraying the initiative as an underhanded gambit which is threatening to the U.S. and Israel. Exactly how does the Palestinian bid threaten anyone?

“Has the U.S. press always disdained unilateralism in Middle East? … CounterSpin talks with Phyllis Bennis, director of the New Internationalism Project at the Institute for Policy Studies.

CounterSpin (9/23/11-9/29/11), http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=4404

PHYLLIS BENNIS

Veteran writer, analyst and activist on Middle East and UN issues, Phyllis Bennis is a fellow at the Washington-based Institute for Policy Studies and director of its New Internationalism Project. She is also a fellow of the Transnational Institute in Amsterdam. In 2001, Bennis helped found and remains on the steering committee of the U.S. Campaign to End Israeli Occupation.

She works closely with the United for Peace and Justice anti-war coalition and co-chairs the UN-based International Coordinating Network on Palestine. Since 2002, she has played an active role in the growing global peace movement. She continues to advise several top UN officials on Middle East and UN democratization issues.

Books by Bennis include Understanding the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict: A Primer and Calling the Shots: How Washington Dominates Today’s UN. http://www.ips-dc.org/staff/phyllis

MAHMOUD ABBAS

A Palestinian politician, who served briefly as prime minister of the Palestinian Authority in 2003, Mahmoud Abbas was elected PLO president in 2005 after the death of PLO president Yāsir Arafāt.

In the early 1990s, Mahmoud Abbas shaped Palestinian negotiating strategy at both the peace conference in Madrid (1991) and in secret meetings with the Israelis in Norway. Through the resulting Oslo Accords (1993), Israel and the Palestinians extended mutual recognition to each other, and Israel ceded some governing functions in the West Bank and Gaza Strip to a Palestinian Authority.

Abbas was a senior member of the Palestinian delegation to the Camp David peace talks in July 2000 and adamantly rejected Israel’s peace offer but opposed the violent Palestinian uprising called the intifāḍah (Arabic: ‘shaking off’) that followed. In 2003, after intense international pressure, Abbas was installed as Palestinian prime minister as an effort to circumvent Arafāt, who was considered an impediment to peace by Israel and the United States. Abbas quickly renounced terrorism, called for an end to the intifāḍah against Israel, and resolved to create a single Palestinian armed force. He soon resigned from office saying he had been undermined by Israel, the United States, and Arafāt.

Following Arafāt’s death in November 2004, Abbas was named head of the PLO. In January 2005, he garnered more than 60 percent of the vote and won the election to succeed Arafāt as president of the Palestinian Authority.

Mahmoud Abbas was born (1935) in the Arab-Jewish town of Zefat and fled with his family to Syria during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. Despite the family’s refugee status, Abbas earned a law degree from the University of Damascus. In the late 1950s, Abbas was one of the founders of Fatah, which spearheaded the Palestinian armed struggle and came to dominate the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).

As head of the PLO’s international department in the late 1970s, Abbas was instrumental in forging contacts with Israeli peace groups. In 1982, Moscow State University awarded Mahmoud Abbas a doctorate in history. [Britannica note]

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Bennett's books available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; Talking Leaves Books-Elmwood: talking.leaves.elmwood@gmail.com [Buffalo, NY];  Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY];  • Articles also at World Pulse: Global Issues through the eyes of Women: http://www.worldpulse.com/ http://www.worldpulse.com/pulsewire

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