[Peace-discuss] Francis Boyle: U.S. Vetoing Palestinian State It Claims to Support

[Robert Naiman]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Institute for Public Accuracy <dcinstitute at igc.org>
Date: Thu, Sep 15, 2011 at 11:10 AM
Subject: U.S. Vetoing Palestinian State It Claims to Support
To: Institute for Public Accuracy <dcinstitute at igc.org>


On the web:
http://www.accuracy.org/release/u-s-vetoing-palestinian-state-it-claims-to-support/

Institute for Public Accuracy
980 National Press Building, Washington, D.C. 20045
(202) 347-0020 * http://www.accuracy.org * ipa at accuracy.org
___________________________________________________

      Thursday, September 15, 2011

      U.S. Vetoing Palestinian State It Claims to Support

FRANCIS BOYLE, fboyle at law.uiuc.edu
   Professor of international law at the University of Illinois College of
Law in Champaign, Boyle was legal advisor to the Palestine Liberation
Organization and Chairman Yasser Arafat on the Palestinian Declaration of
Independence of Nov. 15, 1988, as well as to the Palestinian delegation to
the Middle East peace negotiations and its Chair Dr. Haidar Abdul Shaffi
from 1991 to 1993. He is author of "Palestine, Palestinians, and
International Law."

   He said today: "This week, President Obama has attacked the Palestinian
UN membership bid as a 'distraction' and Secretary of State Clinton has
claimed the U.S. 'strongly supports' the two-state solution but that the
'way of getting a lasting solution is through direct negotiations between
the parties.'

   "Negotiations with the Israelis were Plan A, but as I have advised the
Palestinian leadership since 1987, Plan B would be to get UN full
membership. The Israelis have refused to negotiate in good faith for all
these years, so the Palestinians have now implemented Plan B. Far from being
a distraction, a Palestinian UN bid would greatly enhance Palestinian
rights. A UN member state of Palestine would be in a perfect position to
bring Israeli officials before the International Criminal Court for their
criminal attacks on Palestinians and illegal settlement activity. And every
Palestinian living around the world would automatically become the citizen
of a UN member state that is recognized by almost every state in the world.
Palestinians would no longer be considered ‘stateless.’

   "Many have claimed that if the U.S. does indeed veto the Palestinian UN
bid, the only option would be for the Palestinians to pursue upgrading
Palestine’s current observer status at the UN. This is incorrect. As
Palestinian diplomats have recently noted, they can get the U.N. General
Assembly to admit Palestine as a UN member state pursuant to the terms of
its Uniting for Peace Resolution 377 (1950). So Obama’s veto at the Security
Council can be circumvented by the General Assembly through the Uniting for
Peace Resolution, which was actually pioneered by the U.S. during the Korean
War."

Boyle is one of several contributors to the recent piece "Does the
Palestinian UN Bid Threaten Refugee Rights?" in the Palestinian Ma'an News
Agency. http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=416930

For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 421-6858; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167
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-- 
Robert Naiman
Policy Director
Just Foreign Policy
www.justforeignpolicy.org
naiman at justforeignpolicy.org
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