The Palestinian Authority submitted a draft resolution to the UN General Assembly that would recognize the Palestinians as a nonmember state of the UN, a move that could have far-reaching implications for the 65-year-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict, The Wall Street Journal reports.
A vote is set for Thursday, Nov 29 in the 193-seat UN General Assembly, the 65th anniversary of the Assembly's resolution that created Israel by partitioning British-mandate Palestine into Israeli and Palestinian states.
Israel and the U.S. have put intense pressure on Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Fatah Party-led Palestinian Authority, to put off the vote, arguing it is a "unilateral" move in the multilateral assembly, and that statehood can only come through direct Israeli-Palestinian talks. The U.S. Congress has threatened to cut off funding to the authority and to any U.N. agency Palestinians might join as a result of their UN upgrade. Israel has threatened to withhold tax revenue, which it collects for the Palestinians.
Despite these threats, Abbas is heading to New York to be present for the Thursday vote, which may garner as many as 130 votes in favor, diplomats said.
More countries are lining up to support the UN bid to bolster the authority at Hamas' expense, as the authority has renounced violence, recognized Israel's right to exist and is considered a more reliable negotiating partner than Hamas, diplomats said, according to the Journal.
"This war has bolstered the prestige of Hamas because of its resilience against Israel, and the whole idea now is saving Abbas," said a European diplomat. "Fatah is in a politically difficult situation and the idea is to try to restore or at least heal their political wounds, and perhaps provide them with some political prestige by attaining a new status at the UN."
Hamas, which had consistently opposed the UN bid, reversed course on Sunday, declaring that it now supports it.
The U.S. doesn't have a veto to block the bid in the Assembly as it does in the Security Council, where last year its veto threat helped kill the authority's move for full UN membership.
"We've obviously been very clear that we do not think that this step is going to bring the Palestinian people any closer to a state, that we think it is a mistake, that we oppose it, that we will oppose it," said U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland at a press briefing.
The U.S. Congress has threatened to cut off $500 million in security and economic aid to the Palestinians if it becomes an observer state. Congress cut off funding last year to UNESCO, the UN's cultural agency, when it accepted a Palestinian state as a member. Congress has already decided to stop funding any other UN organization that the territory joins as a result of its upgraded status.
Despite these threats, the Palestinians are going for a vote. .
