The right of the Palestinian people to self-determination in a sovereign state of their own on the 1967 borders (land occupied by Israel after the 1967 war) has been universally recognized by the international community. For two decades, the PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organization), the legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, has undertaken to achieve these national aspirations peacefully through negotiations with Israel. However, Israel
’s refusal to halt illegal settlement activity is endangering the viability of the two-state solution.
Palestine meets the legal criteria for statehood. The fact that it has yet to establish effective control over all of its territory is a result of the continuation of Israel’s military occupation of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip. Israel has accused the Palestinians of taking a unilateral step by going to the UN, imagine? How is going to the most multilateral place on earth, the home of 193 countries, a unilateral step?
The 1967 border is consistent with the UN Security Council Resolution 242 which asserted that any attempt by Israel to acquire Palestinian territory by force is inadmissible and demanded Israel to withdraw from the territories it occupied since 1967. The UN General Assembly Resolution 58/292 affirmed that “the status of the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem, remains one of military occupation.”
According to Article 31 of the Interim Agreement of 1995 signed between the PLO and Israel, “neither side shall take any (unilateral) step that will change the status of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip pending the outcome of the permanent status negotiations.”
For the past 15 years, Israel has violated this article by continuing to build settlements in the West Bank, including in East Jerusalem, thus altering the status of the oPt (occupied Palestinian territories), both physically and demographically, to prevent its return to Palestinians. Since 1995 alone, Israel has built approximately 50,000 settlement housing units and doubled the settler population to over 500,000 settlers.
According to Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, the transfer by the occupying power of parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies is prohibited.
Israel’s settlement policy and practices in the oPt, have been determined by the UN Security Council to have “a serious obstruction to achieving a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the Middle East.”
The PLO signed the Oslo Accords with the understanding that a sovereign Palestinian state would gain independence after a five year transition period. Article I of the DOP (Declaration of Principles) states "The aim of the Israeli-Palestinian negotiation is, among other things, to establish a Palestinian self-governing authority for a transitional period not exceeding five years, leading to a permanent settlement based on Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338". However, almost 20 years have passed and Israel continues to expand Israeli settlements on land meant to form the basis for the Palestinian state. In fact, Palestinians face land confiscations, home evictions, and demolition orders at a greater rate today than they did before the peace process began.
Other UN violations by Israel include its rejection of the 'right of return' of over 5 million Palestinian refugees (UN resolution 194), restricting the freedom of movement and freedom of worship (not allowing Muslims and Christians to enter Jerusalem on days of worship), controlling water resources meant for Palestinian consumption, and holding over 6,000 Palestinian political prisoners.
During U.S. President Barack Obama’s speech at the UN General Assembly last September, President Obama expressed his hopes of seeing Palestine as a member at the UN by the next UN General Assembly session of September 2011, this comes in line with the Quartet’s (U.S, Russia, EU and UN) decision that the timeframe for negotiations between Palestine and Israel should last for one year (from September 2010 to September 2011). With Israel insisting on refusing to freeze settlement activity and its rejection of the frameworks of the negotiations, negotiations remain stalled.
The Palestinian bid for membership at the UN this September is not meant to isolate Israel, rather it is meant to revive the two-state solution. So I ask Canada (and the U.S.), given all these facts, why will you vote against Palestinian membership at the UN?
