Shock move by Palestine at the UN puts Israel in BIG TROUBLE!

Right, so Palestine have, as has been quite widely reported now taken a seat at the United Nations General Assembly, not as an observer state seated elsewhere, but seated amongst the other nations, which is a big step forward towards permanent member status as it absolutely should have, but which to all intents and purposes is being blocked by the United States, who of course in turn set the foreign policy of a lot of other nations besides, but that isn’t the big surprise for Israel, despite their disgust at this turn of events.
While the State of Palestine does not have permanent member status as yet and therefore cannot cast a vote on motions still, it does have new rights and privileges and one of those is that they can now present draft resolutions to the General Assembly, this is something they have now done already and unlike the news of their seat at the UNGA, it’s gone appallingly underreported too and you can probably imagine why because it is THAT that is going to be giving Israel and Netanyahu’s awful hard right coalition government a massive throbbing headache.
Right, so the State of Palestine has taken it’s seat amongst other United Nations member states in the UN Assembly Hall, a new consequence of that vote held back in May, where the UN General Assembly voted through the recognition that the State of Palestine met the criteria for becoming a full member state and recommended to the UN Security Council to reconsider this favourably, with the US having vetoed such a move previously. They did of course then proceed to veto it again.
Nonetheless, the passing of this resolution with regards to the State of Palestine by the UN General Assembly has awarded them new rights and privileges and this includes now being seated where it belongs amongst the other member states in that assembly hall at the UN. So far so much you may already know, may have already heard.
However, amongst these new rights the State of Palestine has, is the ability to, although it can’t vote on it, bring draft resolutions to the UN General Assembly and that, is a big problem for Israel, because the very first draft resolution being brought by the newly seated State of Palestine, drops a bombshell on them, something Israel have done to them all too often, all too literally, but in this case it is very much figurative.
You may recall back in July that the International Court of Justice ruled that the occupation of the Occupied Palestinian Territories was illegal. Their decision stated that Israeli forces in the territories was there illegally, that it should withdraw as soon as possible, an excerpt from Reuters from that time on the findings stating that:
‘"Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and the regime associated with them, have been established and are being maintained in violation of international law," President Nawaf Salam said, reading the findings of a 15-judge panel.
The court said Israel's obligations include paying restitution for harm and "the evacuation of all settlers from existing settlements".
In a swift reaction, Israel's foreign ministry rejected the opinion as "fundamentally wrong" and one-sided, and repeated its stance that a political settlement in the region can only be reached by negotiations.’
Now, that decision was all well and good, but was not legally binding. It was advisory only. Nonetheless, an advisory opinion from the ICJ, itself an organ within the United Nations, carries weight if carried forward and with this new position the State of Palestine now has within the UN, that is exactly what their resolution is all about, but not only that, the State of Palestine want to set a clock on it.
You see the permanent mission to the UN acting on behalf of the State of Palestine is to next week present a draft resolution to the UN General Assembly demanding Israel end it’s presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territories entirely and do so within 12 months.
The ICJ advisory opinion is a demonstration of the illegality of Israel’s occupation now, which has of course been in place since 1967 and also includes decisions made by the UN Security Council, as well as others made by the ICJ that Israeli settlements in Palestinian territory also violate international law and the resolution will also re-emphasise the right of the Palestinian people to self determination, something they haven’t had now in 4 generations.
In the words of the resolution itself, the draft resolution demands "that Israel brings to an end without delay its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, which constitutes a wrongful act of a continuing character entailing its international responsibility, and to do so no later than 12 months from the adoption of the present resolution."
It further demands Israel end its occupation in line with ICJ decisions, and cease new settlement activities, withdraw from all settlements, and compensate for the damage caused in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
Along with these demands the resolution also turns to the matter of support for Israel, along with a swipe at the likes of the US, which, in line with UN member states responsibility towards fulfilling in good faith the obligations they all have towards the State of Palestine, none of them should be accepting the illegal situation Israel has created in Gaza most notably of late, they should be rejecting it, they should be avoiding aiding Israel in any way as a result of it and they should implement the necessary sanctions against them.
Without full accountability being extended to all member states equally, violations of international law cannot possibly be dealt with effectively, from protection of civilians, to ensuring justice is handled fairly, to ensure promotion of peace and to deter future violations, so these points are also included in the resolution.
The resolution also requests that a conference under the terms of the Geneva Conventions on the protection of civilians in wartime be held within the next 6 months with a call to Switzerland to implement this within that time frame and calls on the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres to present a report on the implementation of this resolution within 3 months of its adoption.
To say the State of Palestine is not hanging around with exercising it’s new found rights might be considered an understatement by some, but this is 57 years in the making, 57 years of occupation they seek to end, so why should they wait, frankly they cannot afford to wait with more lives being lost daily, not just in Gaza, but the West Bank too.
Should this pass, and it is still open to be changed, it will dump more pressure on Israel, it will shame them further, show them up on the world stage, though a UN General Assembly vote will still not be legally binding in and of itself either. Should it pass this however, and I think it will and the vote is apparently coming next week, the UN General Assembly would I think then refer it to the UN Security Council for a legally binding decision. I think we can all guess where that would end up, the US will almost certainly veto it, but this could be the most damaging veto they will have ever rendered, because, by refuting the findings of the ICJ, their advisory opinion and by this point the opinion of their fellow UN nations, any US claims to want to invest in a two state solution will be laughed at to their faces. How can you say you want a two state solution, when one illegally occupies the other, the world court says it’s illegal and you unilaterally decide otherwise?
If Israel itself wasn’t deeply concerned at the prospect of this coming to a UN General Assembly vote as well, they wouldn’t be squealing about it either.
The Israeli ambassador to the UN Danny Danon has whinged to the General Assembly that they should reject this resolution by the State of Palestine saying they should:
‘Reject this disgraceful resolution outright and instead adopt a resolution condemning Hamas and calling for the immediate release of all hostages.’
Well I guess you’re free to bring such a resolution sunshine, why don’t you do that?
The office of Benjamin Netanyahu has trotted out that old line of the Jewish Nation cannot be occupiers in its own land, but it isn’t your land, many Jews around the world of course condemn Israel for calling itself Jewish, when it is a Zionist nation more accurately. Other Israeli ministers, particularly those close to the Israeli settler movement have mouthed off too, so it clearly bothers them this resolution.
Keep an eye out for this resolution passing and what comes next. We can’t keep letting the mainstream media in the UK ignore matters like this when they are of such huge importance and yet again, you’ll have probably heard nothing about it unless you spotted it on social media somewhere by accident. This channel will be keeping an eye on it though and will no doubt have lots to say about it in due course.
Meanwhile, whilst the State of Palestine ready their resolution, Israel are saying they’re prepared to turn Beirut into a war zone that looks like Gaza next, but we must never forget they’re always the victims right? Get the details on that story in this video recommendation here as your suggested next watch ands I’ll hopefully catch you on the next vid. Cheers folks.