[The following is the latest from Quaker United Nations Office (QUNO) on Palestinian Statehood at the UN.]
Palestinian Statehood at the United Nations: An Information Resource
Introduction
These pages aim to serve as an informal information resource for issues relating to the current discussions around the question of Palestinian Statehood at the United Nations. The resources contained here are not intended to be exhaustive or definitive; rather they are intended to serve as a bibliographic record of our own research around this complex issue. This is a political and emotional topic for many, and much of the commentary is also politicized: views expressed in the sources cited are those of the authors, not of QUNO. We hope to update this resource on a regular basis and welcome feedback and recommendations for supplementary materials, although we do not make a commitment to include all materials submitted. Please write to quno@afsc.org
Background
It is currently anticipated that Palestinian officials will approach the United Nations (UN) this September with a request for formal UN membership. Palestinian statehood was unilaterally declared in 1988 and has been recognized by around 122 countries to date. In UN terms, becoming a UN member state requires a Security Council (SC) recommendation followed by a vote with a two-thirds majority (129 member states) in the General Assembly (GA). The Israeli leadership opposes the idea and the US has indicated they would likely use their veto to block the process in the SC. However, there are a number of alternative routes that the Palestinians could take to bolster their case for statehood, some of which are referenced below.
This current initiative for UN recognition follows efforts to strengthen diplomatic relations, support the Palestinian private sector and implement institutional reforms. In April 2011, the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee and the IMF joined the World Bank in stating that the Palestinian Authority (PA) has the institutions and economic policies required of a well functioning state. The backdrop to these developments is Prime Minister Salam Fayyad’s two-year plan ‘Ending the Occupation, Building the State’ (2009-2011), supported by the Quartet. The latest National Development Plan (2011-13) entitled ‘Establishing the State, Building the Future’ has also secured international backing.
At the UN, Considerations of Palestinian statehood can be seen in the context of the broader discussions of statehood, legitimacy and UN membership that have arisen in recent cases such as those of Kosovo and South Sudan, and even in the context of the recognition of Libya’s rebel Transitional National Council.
Scenarios
A number of alternative avenues to pursuing UN membership are being discussed in the public domain. These include:
- Palestinian leadership requesting the GA to reaffirm the 1947 General Assembly Partition Plan Resolution 181, which called for the partition of British Mandate Palestine into a Jewish state and an Arab one.
- Resolution 377, ‘Uniting for peace’, being deployed. Uniting for peace is a rarely applied mechanism in which a two-thirds majority in the GA can potentially overrule the SC (and its veto) in certain circumstances. (See ‘Specific Issues’ for more information).
- Palestinian leadership requesting that the GA upgrades the status for Palestine from a ‘non-member entity’ to ‘permanent observer’.
- The GA referring aspects of the issue to the International Court of Justice (ICJ). (For further
discussion see ‘Specific Issues’). - Passing a GA resolution recognizing a Palestinian State, which would not be binding but which could have political and symbolic implications.
[Click here to read the full Quaker United Nations Office report.]