[Peace-discuss] [Peace] date change: local rally in support of Palestinians moved to 9/20

[Robert Naiman]

Briefly:

The US has recently announced that it will veto if the issue comes
before the Security Council (no-one was surprised.)

Regardless of what happens with that, the Palestinians intend to go to
the General Assembly and ask the UNGA to upgrade the status of the
Palestinian mission from "observer" to "nonmember observer state," a
status currently only held by the Vatican.

It is widely believed that this will pass overwhelmingly, showing the
US and Israel to be isolated diplomatically. The US does not have a
veto in the General Assembly.

In addition, it is widely believed that this will facilitate
application by the Palestinians to join UN member bodies - although
apparently this will not be automatic, and will also be a fight each
time (which, in a way, is good, because every such fight will generate
headlines showing the US and Israel to be diplomatically isolated.)

In addition, it is widely believed that this will facilitate the
bringing of Palestinian cases against Israel in the International
Criminal Court.

Of course, there is no shortage of such cases to be brought.

Israel is not a party to the ICC. But European countries are, and they
have to enforce the court's decisions, which means that Palestinians
can seek to enforce ICC judgments against Israeli officials in
European courts.

It is also widely believed that all of the forgoing will contribute to
ongoing European efforts - hopefully, down the road, also efforts in
the US - to impose economic sanctions on the Israeli occupation.

In addition, it is widely believed that all of the forgoing will
strengthen the hand of the Palestinians in negotiations with the US
and Israel, in part because the Palestinians will be bolstered by
international support, in part because the Palestinians will have
demonstrated that they can make diplomatic trouble for the US and
Israel any time they want.

One might be tempted to think that the latter is a trivial effect, but
to people in Washington, it is a big deal. Washington wants to set the
agenda for what problems the world is talking about. If they want
people to be talking about Iran's nuclear program, it screws them up
if someone else is setting the agenda by having an uprising in Egypt.

On Wed, Sep 14, 2011 at 12:51 PM, Karen Medina <kmedina67 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Robert Naiman wrote:
>> the local rally in support of the Palestinians in the context of the debate at
>> the UN has been changed from 9/15 to 9/20.
>
> Hi Robert,
>
> Thanks for organizing this!..
> People (sure go ahead and read it as I ) might be interested in a bit
> more information about the issue.
> My gut feeling is that UN approving Palestine as a nation would make a
> huge difference in giving Palestinians UN representation, access to
> the International Criminal Courts, and the right to defend its
> borders, among other things.
>
> But I guess the issue becomes what happens if they are turned down?
>
> What is the best that can happen? What is the worst?
>
> -karen medina
>
> On Wed, Sep 14, 2011 at 11:47 AM, Robert Naiman
> <naiman at justforeignpolicy.org> wrote:
>> To enable the participation of more people, the date of the local
>> rally in support of the Palestinians in the context of the debate at
>> the UN has been changed from 9/15 to 9/20. Please spread the word.
>



-- 
Robert Naiman
Policy Director
Just Foreign Policy
www.justforeignpolicy.org
naiman at justforeignpolicy.org