UN Recognizes Palestine As Non-Member Observer State

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un-abbasThe United Nations General Assembly has voted to recognize Palestine as a non-member observer state.

The historic vote came after impassioned speeches from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who asked the UN to “issue the birth certificate of Palestine,” and Ron Prosor, the Israeli Ambassador to the UN, who said a vote in favour of Palestinian statehood would be detrimental to peace in the region.

UN member nations voted 138-9 in favour of recognizing Palestine, despite warnings of disruptions to peace talks from Israel and its western allies. Forty-one nations abstained from voting.

Canada and the United States stood with Israel in vehemently opposing raising Palestine’s status at the UN. Also voting “no” were the Czech Republic, Panama and the Pacific island nations of Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru and Palau.

Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird told the assembly that Canada “has long opposed unilateral action by both sides,” and said outstanding issues between Palestine and Israel are “too complicated” to be resolved with a vote in the UN.

Baird said Canada supports a “negotiated settlement” between the two sides.

As the vote result flashed on an electronic board in the UN General Assembly in New York, the majority of delegates stood up, cheering and clapping. An elated Abbas shook hands and hugged his supporters as a large Palestinian flag was unfurled behind him.

Meanwhile, Palestinians took to the streets in the West Bank and Gaza to celebrate, honking their car horns, waving flags and setting off fireworks.

Although Thursday’s vote is largely symbolic, the Palestinians view the status change as a crucial step toward recognition on the world stage.

But Prosor told the UN that formal recognition of Palestine is a setback for both Israelis and Palestinians.

“The only way to achieve peace is through agreements that are reached by the parties and not through UN resolutions that completely ignore Israel’s vital security and national interests,” he said before the vote. “And because this resolution is so one-sided, it doesn’t advance peace, it pushes it backwards.”

After the vote, U.S. Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice called on Israeli and Palestinian authorities to resume negotiations “without preconditions” and “further provocative actions.”

She said “grand pronouncements” will soon fade and Palestinians will wake up to the same world they’ve known for decades unless serious peace negotiations take place.

But Abbas said the onus is on Israel to stop what he called an “aggression against our people in the Gaza Strip.”

He accused Israel of refusing to back down from its “policy of occupation, brute force and war, which in turn obliges the international community to shoulder its responsibilities toward the Palestinian people and toward peace.”

Read more: CTV NEWS

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3 COMMENTS

  1. This is no surprise, but I’ve got just one question:
    How many of the states that voted in favor can define just exactly where is Palestine?

  2. Am I the only person who can see a bitter irony in the fact that on 29 November 1947 the General Assembly of the United Nations voted for the establishment of a “Jewish State” while on 29 November 2012 the General Assembly of the United Nations voted to upgrade the status of the Palestinian Administration in the UN?

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