28 dec 2018
Israel's Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon addresses the Security Council on January 25, 2018
The United States and Israel have planned to block an upcoming Palestinian statehood initiative at the United Nations Security Council.
“We are preparing to stop the initiative,” said Israel’s UN Ambassador Danny Danon in a statement on Thursday.
Danon said his delegation is working with the US administration to counter the Palestinian move.
The Israeli official expressed frustration about the initiative, accusing the Palestinian Authority of “paying salaries to terrorists each month” and having the “audacity” to apply for UN state membership.
“Instead of focusing on building a better and more hopeful future for the Palestinians and helping to ensure stability in the region, the Palestinian leadership is continuing its destructive policies that have encouraged recent terror attacks”, the Israeli envoy claimed.
Danon made the remarks after Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Malki announced on Wednesday that he intends to initiate an application for UN state membership in mid-January.
Earlier this year, the UN General Assembly voted, by an overwhelming majority, to temporarily grant the “State of Palestine” additional rights and privileges, allowing it to head the "Group of 77", the biggest bloc of developing countries at the UN.
The PA will take over leadership of the group in January. Al-Malki plans to initiate the UN membership application at the related event in mid-January, according to various Palestinian media sources.
The last time the PA had applied for full UN membership was in 2011. UN membership requires approval from at least 9 of the UNSC's 15 members.
The Security Council, however, did not reach such an agreement at the time, and instead recommended that the General Assembly give Palestine the status of a non-member observer state.
Consequently, Palestine's status was upgraded to an observer state after winning 138 favorable votes at the General Assembly on November 29, 2012.
Only 9 countries opposed the measure.
Decisions made at the General Assembly cannot be vetoed by any of the other five permanent council members, including the US.
The US is, however, expected to veto any upcoming Palestinian statehood resolution at the UNSC.
Unilateral statehood for Palestine
The PA's new initiative contrasts with that of past negotiations, such as the Oslo Accords, where Palestinian statehood was to be considered only after a final status agreement with Israel was achieved.
The push for unilateral statehood recognition comes as many believe Israeli-Palestinian negotiations have been clearly undermined by illegal Israeli settlement construction and other such violations.
The anticipated Palestinian move comes as US President Donald Trump has yet to unveil his so-called “Deal of the Century”, the president's allegedly new Middle East road map.
The controversial proposal, which has been described to be in line with the US' recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital last year, has drawn condemnation from many Palestinian and international figures.
The United States and Israel have planned to block an upcoming Palestinian statehood initiative at the United Nations Security Council.
“We are preparing to stop the initiative,” said Israel’s UN Ambassador Danny Danon in a statement on Thursday.
Danon said his delegation is working with the US administration to counter the Palestinian move.
The Israeli official expressed frustration about the initiative, accusing the Palestinian Authority of “paying salaries to terrorists each month” and having the “audacity” to apply for UN state membership.
“Instead of focusing on building a better and more hopeful future for the Palestinians and helping to ensure stability in the region, the Palestinian leadership is continuing its destructive policies that have encouraged recent terror attacks”, the Israeli envoy claimed.
Danon made the remarks after Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Malki announced on Wednesday that he intends to initiate an application for UN state membership in mid-January.
Earlier this year, the UN General Assembly voted, by an overwhelming majority, to temporarily grant the “State of Palestine” additional rights and privileges, allowing it to head the "Group of 77", the biggest bloc of developing countries at the UN.
The PA will take over leadership of the group in January. Al-Malki plans to initiate the UN membership application at the related event in mid-January, according to various Palestinian media sources.
The last time the PA had applied for full UN membership was in 2011. UN membership requires approval from at least 9 of the UNSC's 15 members.
The Security Council, however, did not reach such an agreement at the time, and instead recommended that the General Assembly give Palestine the status of a non-member observer state.
Consequently, Palestine's status was upgraded to an observer state after winning 138 favorable votes at the General Assembly on November 29, 2012.
Only 9 countries opposed the measure.
Decisions made at the General Assembly cannot be vetoed by any of the other five permanent council members, including the US.
The US is, however, expected to veto any upcoming Palestinian statehood resolution at the UNSC.
Unilateral statehood for Palestine
The PA's new initiative contrasts with that of past negotiations, such as the Oslo Accords, where Palestinian statehood was to be considered only after a final status agreement with Israel was achieved.
The push for unilateral statehood recognition comes as many believe Israeli-Palestinian negotiations have been clearly undermined by illegal Israeli settlement construction and other such violations.
The anticipated Palestinian move comes as US President Donald Trump has yet to unveil his so-called “Deal of the Century”, the president's allegedly new Middle East road map.
The controversial proposal, which has been described to be in line with the US' recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital last year, has drawn condemnation from many Palestinian and international figures.
27 dec 2018
Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Minister Riyad al-Malki, this Wednesday, announced that Palestine would initiate an application to gain full state membership at the United Nations.
Speaking to Voice of Palestine radio station, al-Malki stated that he would initiate the application to upgrade Palestine’s status, from an observer state to a full-member state in the international body, during his upcoming visit to New York, scheduled for mid January 2019, following President Mahmoud Abbas’ instructions.
The application would be submitted to the United Nations Security Council, WAFA News Agency reported, according to the PNN.
Al-Malki is scheduled to make this visit to assume Palestine’s position as chair of the Group 77 developing countries and China, for the year 2019.
The planned submission of the application marks the latest Palestinian leadership’s diplomatic steps sparked by US President Donald Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, and relocate the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
To secure full state membership, Palestinians need support from nine out of the UNSC’s 15 member states, provided that none of the five permanent member states use the power of veto.
Speaking to Voice of Palestine radio station, al-Malki stated that he would initiate the application to upgrade Palestine’s status, from an observer state to a full-member state in the international body, during his upcoming visit to New York, scheduled for mid January 2019, following President Mahmoud Abbas’ instructions.
The application would be submitted to the United Nations Security Council, WAFA News Agency reported, according to the PNN.
Al-Malki is scheduled to make this visit to assume Palestine’s position as chair of the Group 77 developing countries and China, for the year 2019.
The planned submission of the application marks the latest Palestinian leadership’s diplomatic steps sparked by US President Donald Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, and relocate the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
To secure full state membership, Palestinians need support from nine out of the UNSC’s 15 member states, provided that none of the five permanent member states use the power of veto.
26 dec 2018
On 13 December, shortly after two Israeli soldiers had been shot dead outside an illegal Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank, Yaakov Katz, editor-in-chief of The Jerusalem Post tweeted the following: “They celebrate death and we celebrate life. That is the core of this conflict”.
Katz’s tweet encapsulated the dehumanization of Palestinians, and utter denial about the reality of occupation and colonialism, that is unfortunately all too common amongst Jewish Israelis.
The occupied and occupation
"Incitement", "brainwashing", "religious fervor", "extremism", "social media", "family problems" – variations on familiar refrains are trotted out, time and time again. Anything to avoid facing an equation familiar to every colonial power throughout history: The occupied always reject occupation.
It's doubtful whether Katz, or any of the other apartheid apologists, ever imagine what it must be like to be a Palestinian in the West Bank, to have so much of your life controlled by a soldier’s whim and a general’s decision. Your house? Demolished. Your child? Shot dead. Your colleague? Jailed.
Israeli politicians and "security" officials tell us that Palestinian youth are fed a diet of hatred and incitement – at schools, in mosques, and online. But Palestinian children do not need to be taught to hate when settlers attack them on their way to school, or when Israeli soldiers shoot their classmates, or when military judges jail their parents. Living under occupation is its own education – and it lasts a lifetime.
It is hard to understate the extent to which Israel’s colonial occupation degrades and brutalizes Palestinians. Their homes and properties can be taken. Their bodies can be tortured. Their lives can be extinguished. And all of the above with total impunity.
In its daily activities, the "Israel Defense Forces" is, first and foremost, above all else, a colonial army.
A military regime
According to former officers, “the number of soldiers the army needs to keep in the West Bank amounts to more than half, and occasionally two thirds, of its regular forces engaged in operational duties.” And 80 percent of those forces “are involved in direct protection of the settlements”.
Of the 14 Israelis killed by Palestinians this year, seven were uniformed soldiers, and seven were settlers – all were killed in the occupied Palestinian territory. According to Israeli authorities’ own figures, out of 330 “terrorist attacks” in October (a category that includes throwing Molotov cocktails at occupation forces), not a single one was “executed within the Green Line”.
Yet rather than draw the obvious conclusions from the above data – namely, that a military regime dedicated to protecting a settler population and apartheid system will necessarily engender a dynamic of revolt and repression – Israel only knows how to double down on occupation.
Over the second week of December, for example, many Israelis have complained that the army’s “deterrence has been lost”, with demands from politicians and settlers for fresh collective punishment policies.
These include further limits on freedom of movement for Palestinians, home demolitions, sanctions on the Palestinian Authority, and, in addition, a boost to the colonization of Palestinian land through settlement expansion and outpost authorization.
The only concern for Israeli authorities weighing up such options – especially the military and bodies like the Shin Bet – is an anxiety not to upset the "equilibrium" to which so many resources are dedicated: Enough repression to subdue resistance, but not enough to provoke a wider uprising.
2019: A wider revolt
Though Israeli analysts have fretted over a ‘spike’ in violence in the West Bank, the odds are currently stacked against an intifada.
As Mouin Rabbani wrote back in 2015, “observations that the Palestinians have not had it so bad since 1948 should reference not only the various indicators that would lead one to suggest another uprising is imminent, but also those factors that together conspire against renewed rebellion”.
The absence, in Rabbani’s words, of “an organisational infrastructure that can once again channel popular fury and mobilize, organize, and sustain a new Palestinian intifada”, remains.
Looking ahead to 2019, the next year promises more of the same. Israel will go to the polls in April, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will not want to be outflanked to his right by Jewish Home; the settlers urging a crackdown on Palestinians may be granted their wish.
On the other hand, keen to avoid an election season dominated by a wave of Israeli casualties in the West Bank, Netanyahu will also be inclined to heed the warnings from army and intelligence officials regarding fueling a wider revolt.
The status quo is thus likely to prevail – barring, of course, an unexpected development – which means more occupation and periodic, but limited, escalations. And all the while, the Israeli government will assure us that there is no partner for peace, the Palestinians teach their children to hate, and that to even dare breath the word "apartheid" is nothing but an antisemitic lie.
- Ben White is the author of Israeli Apartheid: A Beginner's Guide and Palestinians in Israel: Segregation, Discrimination and Democracy. He is a writer for Middle East Monitor. His article was published in the Middle East Eye.
Katz’s tweet encapsulated the dehumanization of Palestinians, and utter denial about the reality of occupation and colonialism, that is unfortunately all too common amongst Jewish Israelis.
The occupied and occupation
"Incitement", "brainwashing", "religious fervor", "extremism", "social media", "family problems" – variations on familiar refrains are trotted out, time and time again. Anything to avoid facing an equation familiar to every colonial power throughout history: The occupied always reject occupation.
It's doubtful whether Katz, or any of the other apartheid apologists, ever imagine what it must be like to be a Palestinian in the West Bank, to have so much of your life controlled by a soldier’s whim and a general’s decision. Your house? Demolished. Your child? Shot dead. Your colleague? Jailed.
Israeli politicians and "security" officials tell us that Palestinian youth are fed a diet of hatred and incitement – at schools, in mosques, and online. But Palestinian children do not need to be taught to hate when settlers attack them on their way to school, or when Israeli soldiers shoot their classmates, or when military judges jail their parents. Living under occupation is its own education – and it lasts a lifetime.
It is hard to understate the extent to which Israel’s colonial occupation degrades and brutalizes Palestinians. Their homes and properties can be taken. Their bodies can be tortured. Their lives can be extinguished. And all of the above with total impunity.
In its daily activities, the "Israel Defense Forces" is, first and foremost, above all else, a colonial army.
A military regime
According to former officers, “the number of soldiers the army needs to keep in the West Bank amounts to more than half, and occasionally two thirds, of its regular forces engaged in operational duties.” And 80 percent of those forces “are involved in direct protection of the settlements”.
Of the 14 Israelis killed by Palestinians this year, seven were uniformed soldiers, and seven were settlers – all were killed in the occupied Palestinian territory. According to Israeli authorities’ own figures, out of 330 “terrorist attacks” in October (a category that includes throwing Molotov cocktails at occupation forces), not a single one was “executed within the Green Line”.
Yet rather than draw the obvious conclusions from the above data – namely, that a military regime dedicated to protecting a settler population and apartheid system will necessarily engender a dynamic of revolt and repression – Israel only knows how to double down on occupation.
Over the second week of December, for example, many Israelis have complained that the army’s “deterrence has been lost”, with demands from politicians and settlers for fresh collective punishment policies.
These include further limits on freedom of movement for Palestinians, home demolitions, sanctions on the Palestinian Authority, and, in addition, a boost to the colonization of Palestinian land through settlement expansion and outpost authorization.
The only concern for Israeli authorities weighing up such options – especially the military and bodies like the Shin Bet – is an anxiety not to upset the "equilibrium" to which so many resources are dedicated: Enough repression to subdue resistance, but not enough to provoke a wider uprising.
2019: A wider revolt
Though Israeli analysts have fretted over a ‘spike’ in violence in the West Bank, the odds are currently stacked against an intifada.
As Mouin Rabbani wrote back in 2015, “observations that the Palestinians have not had it so bad since 1948 should reference not only the various indicators that would lead one to suggest another uprising is imminent, but also those factors that together conspire against renewed rebellion”.
The absence, in Rabbani’s words, of “an organisational infrastructure that can once again channel popular fury and mobilize, organize, and sustain a new Palestinian intifada”, remains.
Looking ahead to 2019, the next year promises more of the same. Israel will go to the polls in April, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will not want to be outflanked to his right by Jewish Home; the settlers urging a crackdown on Palestinians may be granted their wish.
On the other hand, keen to avoid an election season dominated by a wave of Israeli casualties in the West Bank, Netanyahu will also be inclined to heed the warnings from army and intelligence officials regarding fueling a wider revolt.
The status quo is thus likely to prevail – barring, of course, an unexpected development – which means more occupation and periodic, but limited, escalations. And all the while, the Israeli government will assure us that there is no partner for peace, the Palestinians teach their children to hate, and that to even dare breath the word "apartheid" is nothing but an antisemitic lie.
- Ben White is the author of Israeli Apartheid: A Beginner's Guide and Palestinians in Israel: Segregation, Discrimination and Democracy. He is a writer for Middle East Monitor. His article was published in the Middle East Eye.
