Palestine to seek UN recognition for statehood

30 September 2011, 18:00 PM

Faridul Alam

A-W-I-P

PALESTINIAN villagers say Israeli settlers in the West Bank have set fire to dozens of acres of agricultural land and cut down about 500 olive, fig and almond trees" (AP, 22 Sept'11). "The Secretary General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), Professor Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, strongly condemned Israeli for its decision to build 900 new settlement units on lands of the occupied East Jerusalem, considering this act as a disregard to the international will and flagrant violation of international law and the Fourth Geneva Convention" ( OIC web 21 Sept'11). These incidents have happened when the Palestine President Mahmud Abbas has reached to the UN with the preparation to raise their demand for statehood. Though 126 member states, comprise 5.5 billion people of 7 billion world population, have officially recognized the Palestinian state in some form, it is still not considered as sovereign state as per international standard. As a result the conflict between Israel-Palestine has become an endless game spread over the whole Middle East. 'The Balfour declaration' of 1917 was the basis to create a Jewish state in Palestine and that is the root of the continuing Israel-Palestine conflict. Though the Arab world categorically rejected to establish such state within Palestine, their rejection was overruled and the Israel state was established in 1948 and the Palestinian people became stateless. The six days war in 1967 made the Palestinian people more frustrated and criminal arson at Al Aqsa Mosque in 1969 forced the Arab and the other Islamic states of the world to be united and work together for the protection of Muslims and upholding their human rights, which resulted the creation of Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC). Although before and after forming the OIC, the Arab world tried to solve this problem by recognizing the independent entity of Israel but the recognition of a Palestine land comprising the West bank, Gaza stripe and East Jerusalem were abandoned by the Israeli authority time and again. In different times it has been reported in different media the brutality of the Israeli authority towards the Palestinian people including the women and children. The affected people were even deprived from the humanitarian assistance from others. The people of Palestine have been fighting for more than sixty years for their self-determination. At present it is not only limited within a specific territory rather it has become international tension as more than 4.6 million Arab people have been displaced and accepted the life of refugeehood in different Arab countries and more than 5.5 million are living in different parts of the world as refugees, which means the Palestinian people are the largest number among the world refugees. The UN resolution 61/113 (2006) was adopted to reaffirm the right of the Palestinian people which could be assured. Apart from it, different initiatives were also taken by the OIC. Among them the extra-ordinary summit meeting that was held in Makkah in December 2005 is notable, where next 10 years Action Plan (AP) was prepared. 1(IX) of the AP states to make all efforts to end the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem, the Syrian Golan and the full completion of the Israeli withdrawal from all remaining Lebanese territories, in compliance with Security Council Resolution 425, and extend effective support for the Palestinian people's right to self-determination and the establishment of their independent State with Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its capital. It seems that the fragmentation of the key OIC members unlock the opportunity for the external forces to secure their own interest that hampers the greater unity of Muslims. Though there were many obstacles for the Palestinian authority to move for the claim for the statehood, some recent development might have inspired them. The adjacent countries like Turkey and Egypt were specifically maintaining good relationship with Israel for strategic reason but Israeli assault on Turkish sea vessel in May 2011 annoyed the Turkish government and the recent border firing between Egypt and Israel resulted attack on Israeli embassy in Egypt and the embassy officials had to flee because of Egyptian people's movement, which has also deteriorated the Egypt-Israel relationship. All these mean that those states are certainly going to show their sympathy towards the Palestinian people. The Palestinian authority were tried to restrained by the states who are known as the 'friend state' of Israel and specifically warned by the USA that it will exercise veto power in the UN Security Council. If this happens, however, the general assembly can raise Palestine's status from "permanent observer" to "non-member observer state", a largely symbolic vote, without Security Council's approval. It is obvious that the Palestine is going to face a challenging future as the whole process may bring more sufferings to the Palestinian people. In the recent times, the world has witnessed several significant changes, which is called the victory of people through the eviction of autocratic regimes in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya and the struggle is still going on in Syria and Yemen. The 'Masters' of the world have welcomed all these movement and even sponsored to assure victory, which is encouraging. That is why, hope naturally comes, why not this is the time for the Palestinian people to restore their rights? There is no question about the legitimate right of statehood for the Palestinian people but the question is whether they will be given it or not. The present international scenario does not show the favorable position for Palestine. Then the question may come to our mind 'when should it be given?' The answer is that only the change of international structure can assure it. It is well known that the Palestinian people are fighting for their rights and self-determination, which is stated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and also guaranteed in the Charter of the United Nations. Finally, we shall not forget that change is a certain process in course of time. The power structure of the world did not remain the same and will not remain as now. Human rights are inherent and cannot be undermined permanently by force. This is only the human being, who can make impossible thing possible. Our solidarity for the Palestinian people. The writer is Chairman, Department of International Relations, University of Chittagong.