The
implications of Palestine seeking membership in UN and international
organizations are seismic for Israel, Palestine and the US. The divergent interests of the US and Israel
will come to a head in Congress as members will have to choose between US
interests and the Israeli interests. For Palestine, it is now more at parity
with Israel as the threat of seeking justice within these UN agencies makes
Israelis shiver as the threats of international sanctions, economic boycott and
international criminal trials for its current and former leaders loom in the
horizon.
For the Palestinians, the decision to seek
membership in UN agencies is a win-win move which was precipitated by Israel’s
breach of its commitment to release the last of the 104 Palestinian prisoners
it was holding before the Oslo Agreement.
Palestinians were enticed by Secretary of State John Kerry to restart
peace talks with Israel in July, 2013 on condition that 104 Palestinians will
be released and that final status discussions would be addressed. The
Palestinians agreed not to seek membership in UN agencies.
When Israel breached its part of the agreement,
the Palestinians, seeing no progress on the final status issues, applied to 15
UN agencies for membership. Israel
wanted Palestine to recommit to the talks beyond the April 29, 2014 deadline
set out when the “talks” began but the Palestinians stated that the release of
the prisoners was already agreed to and would not commit to extend the talks
for the same agreement. The US then tried to sweeten the deal by considering
releasing the notorious Navy spy Jonathan Pollard in exchange for the release
of 400 Palestinian women and children prisoners held by Israel. (The reader
should note very clearly that this is an admission by Israel that it is
imprisoning Palestinian children.)
Additionally, Secretary Kerry elicited a show of
“restraint” by Israel in new housing starts that did not include settlements in
East Jerusalem and did not include housing starts already announced. On
Tuesday, April 1, 2014, Israel, in what it thought was a cunning move before an
agreement could be reached, announced over 700 new housing starts. This was the
last straw for the Palestinians and the Palestinian Liberation Organization
Action Committee unanimously voted to seek UN agency membership.
The
divergence of US and Israeli interests was evident when Palestine was granted
membership in the UN agency UNESCO in 2012.
The US had to stop paying its membership dues in UNESCO as two US laws,
over 20 years old, compel the US to de-fund any UN organizations which approves
Palestine’s membership. The laws were intended to keep Palestine out of these
organizations as a way to protect Israel. The law, however, was ill conceived
for it has and will hurt the United States while protecting Israeli
interests. Congress attempted to
influence member nations of these organizations to vote against the acceptance
of Palestine for fear of losing significant US funding. Members of UNESCO were not easily bribed.
For two years the Obama administration sought a
waiver from Congress without success, and last November the U.S. lost its
voting rights at UNESCO as a result of being two years in arrears. US Ambassador to the UN Samantha Powers urged
Congress on April 2, 2014 to repeal or waive the law in its application to
Palestine stating that defunding UN agencies that admit Palestine is not in the
interests of the US. She stated that defunding these agencies would be a
“double win” for the Palestinians. With US influence in these agencies
diminished through losing its voting rights, Russia, China and even Cuba would
take the lead.
UNESCO’s purpose is to contribute to peace and
security by promoting international collaboration through education, science,
and culture in order to further universal respect for justice, the rule of law,
and human rights along with fundamental freedom proclaimed in the UN Charter. Some UNESCO sponsored projects include
literacy, technical, and teacher-training programs; international science
programs; the promotion of independent media and freedom of the press; regional
and cultural history projects; the promotion of cultural diversity;
translations of world literature; international cooperation agreements to
secure the world cultural and natural heritage and to preserve human rights,
and attempts to bridge the worldwide digital divide. These are all within the
interests of the US but with the loss of its voting rights, that influence has
been negated—all because Congress has put Israel’s interests ahead of the
interests of the US.
A pro-Israeli Congress would be reluctant to allow
Congressional members to vote their conscience to grant a waiver or repeal
these laws. The Israeli lobby, true to its history of championing Israeli
interests over US interests, will not allow Israel interests to be hurt and
therefore, its considerable power over Congress will restrain Congressional
members from voting for US interests and against Israeli interests. The Israeli
lobby has demonstrated on numerous occasions that it champions Israel’s
interest over the US interests; most recently over President’s policy visa vie
Syria and Iran. The lobby in both cases wanted the US to attack these countries
over a reluctant American public’s weariness over two unfunded wars.
With the Israeli lobby ever threatening each
member’s election over their loyalty to Israel, members of Congress will be in
a quagmire trying to decide whether they should act in the best interest of the
US or Israel—or more accurately whether they are willing to put their own
re-election interests at the mercy of the Israeli lobby or whether they will do
the very thing they were elected—protecting US interests.
Secretary of State John Kerry was perceptive in
January, 2014 when he stated that if a peace agreement is not reached, Israel
will be further isolated. He must have
foreseen that the US must now act in its own self-interest and cannot therefore
base its international relations based on the interests of Israel.
The US cannot allow other nations’ political
agenda to drive the US out of the UN and its agencies. The decision whether to
fund these agencies must be based on the totality of US security, political,
and economic interests served by the agencies. Congress will have to stand up
for American interests and tell Israel that the divergence of US and Israeli
interests is at hand. US foreign policy cannot be based on the interests of
another nation.
U.S. diplomats have warned Israel that the United
States cannot stop further Palestinian moves at the United Nations, especially
if the current negotiations collapse—which they have despite the statement by
Secretary Kerry to not write off the “talks”.
The move to seek membership in UN agencies is yet
another step toward legitimacy for the Palestinian State after having won “non-member
observer state” status in 2012 from the UN General Assembly. Legitimacy for the Palestinian Authority is
also achieved from the Palestinian people who have been exasperated by yet
another round of “talks” with Israel that are endless and lead to no end. A
great majority of Palestinians, most of which are moderate and who were
supporters of the Oslo Accords, have become frustrated with an endless state of
talks that never end, that are always conditioned upon an agreement to agree on
something else in the future. They were
also frustrated that as the Palestinian Authority was conducting “talks” with
Israel, Israel killed over 60 and wounded over 900 Palestinians; Israel
kept building and building more Israeli settlement housing; and the
illegal Israeli settlers were cutting down more and more Palestinian olive
groves. Thus, taking the step to seek membership in UN agencies is very much
favored by the Palestinian people in Palestine and around the globe.
Once Palestine is a member of UN agencies, it can
seek to address the Israeli violations. For example, Article 2 of the Fourth
Geneva Convention states that signatories are bound by the convention both in
war, armed conflicts where war has not been declared, and in an occupation of
another country's territory. In addition, the United Nations Security Council,
in 1993, adopted a report that concluded that the Geneva Conventions had passed
into the body of customary international law, thus making them binding on
non-signatories to the Conventions whenever they engage in armed conflicts.
The Fourth Geneva Convention clearly states the
illegality of an occupying power moving its people to occupied areas. The
International Court of Justice has given an advisory statement regarding the
Israeli wall built deep on Palestinian land. The advisory ruling in 2007 states
clearly that as an occupying power, Israel is forbidden to settle in Arab areas
captured during the 1967 war. Thus the
status of the Israeli colonization (settlements as the press calls them) will
be legally challenged through legal means once Palestine is granted membership
in the Fourth Geneva Convention and the International Court of Justice.
Palestine will be in position not only to bring
war crimes against Israeli officials but against countries and corporations who
support or benefit from the occupation of Palestine. Tzipi Livni, Israel's
foreign minister during the War on Gaza in 2008-2009, was cautioned by legal
experts not to leave Israel if the Palestinians resorted to the “nuclear option”,
i.e. seeking membership in UN agencies. Corporations worldwide, like
Caterpillar, can be sued for aiding in the Israeli practice of demolishing
Palestinian homes, 27,000 since 1967. Legal precedents have been set by the
case against former Yugoslavia President Slobodan Milošević and against Shell
Oil--which had to make a hefty settlement to Nigerian farmers after being
indicted for human rights violations in its efforts to extract oil. The tide is
turning towards justice for the Palestinian people.
By applying for membership in UN agencies, the
Palestinians are on the road to achieving parity with Israel. Parity is much
needed. The latest action by the Palestinian Authority may be the action that
achieves parity. Parity has been thwarted by the diplomatic shield that the US
has been giving Israel for more than 6 decades. That shield is evaporating as
Palestine’s admission into these agencies has caused a diversion of US and
Israeli interests.
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