Palestine at the United Nations: A Vote for Peace and Justice

[The following report was issued by the Palestine Liberation Organization on 29 November 2012.] 

Palestine at the United Nations: A Vote for Peace and Justice

We are pleased to have released the latest publication made by the PLO – Negotiations Affairs Department entitled “Palestine at the United Nations: A Vote for Peace and Justice.” Copies of this study will be distributed in a few hours to all member states of the United Nations before the vote to enhance Palestine’s status at the UN.

Contents

• International statements in support of Palestine’s Freedom
• Excerpts from the Speech of H.E President Mahmoud Abbas to the UNGA in September 27, 2012
• Palestine and the International Community: A Shared Vision for Peace
• Israel’s Agenda: Colonization and Apartheid
• 65 Years of UN Resolutions on Palestine
• Key Aspects of International Law Relating to Palestine
• Unilateral Israeli Actions VS/ International Law
• 64 Years of Exile: Palestine Refugees
• 20 Years of Undermined Efforts: The Peace Process
• Palestine on the International Agenda: Extracts from speeches delivered at the last UNGA General Debate (September 2012)
• Conclusion: The Palestinian people will continue their noble and dignified struggle

Introduction

The Palestinian vision for a just and comprehensive peace agreement that ends the conflict is one which is shared with the rest of the international community: two states, Palestine and Israel, living side by side in peace and security and a just and agreedupon solution to the Palestinian refugee issue in accordance with international law, including UN General Assembly 194. This vision was enshrined in the Arab Peace initiative in 2002, which was also endorsed by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation. The Palestinian position seeks to end Israeli occupation, exercise the Palestinian people’s inalienable right to self-determination and establish an independent, viable and sovereign state on the 1967 borders.

The international community has endorsed the two-state solution along the 1967 border with East Jerusalem as the Palestinian capital, and has repeatedly affirmed that the two-state solution is the best way to achieve a peaceful resolution to this conflict.

Moreover, the international community continues to strongly condemn Israeli policies and actions that contravene international law and Israel’s obligations as an occupying Power. The international community has also repeatedly affirmed that these practices are devastating Palestinian lives and livelihoods and undermining the prospect of a two-state solution. 

The Palestinian and international visions, therefore, are in line with one another, and the State of Palestine’s recognition by the United Nations reinforces this common objective.

In taking the sovereign decision to apply to the United Nations General Assembly for an upgrade to Observer State status, the Palestinian people is taking a positive step towards fulfilling its inalienable right to self-determination within the framework of international law and the two-state vision of the international community. Statehood and self-determination are not, and have never been, matters to be negotiated bilaterally. The international community has a legal and moral obligation not only to support the Palestinians’ inalienable right to selfdetermination but to realize that right. Now is the time.

[Click here to download the full report.]