The US is lobbying against a Palestinian state at the UN

The US is trying to avoid the embarrassment of vetoing Palestine becoming a full UN member state. Joe Biden’s administration is attempting to convince other UN Security Council members to vote against recommending Palestinian UN membership.

The vote will go ahead on 19 April followed by a vote in the UN General Assembly. If Security Council members vote against it, the US will not have to use its veto as one of the five permanent council members.

U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield said:

We do not see that doing a resolution in the Security Council will necessarily get us to a place where we can find … a two-state solution moving forward

So apparently, opposing recognising Palestine aids the US’s supposed two-state solution policy. It’s unclear how recognising Israel but not Palestine is constructive to a two-state solution.

Since 2012, Palestine has been a UN non-member observer state. The 193 member General Assembly voted 138 in favour of Palestine gaining this recognition. The US and Israel were against it.

This recognition of Palestinian statehood rather than simply being an “entity” paved the way for Palestine to join the International Criminal Court (ICC) in 2015.

But the US congress passed a spending bill in March that contained a long-term provision that would reduce funding to the Palestinian Authority, which partly administers the Israeli occupied West Bank, if:

the Palestinians initiate an International Criminal Court (ICC) judicially authorized investigation, or actively supports such an investigation, that subjects Israeli nationals to an investigation for alleged crimes against Palestinians.

Israel has occupied the remaining Palestinian territory of Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem since 1967. That’s where Palestinian people want their own self-determination in statehood.

The Palestinian Authority lacks legitimacy for Palestinians partly because it hasn’t held elections in 18 years.

Israel additionally doesn’t uphold Palestinian rights to freedom of expression and assembly against occupation, key to the electoral process.

Israeli forces injured over 36,000 Palestinian protestors during the Great March of Return – weekly demonstrations that began on 30 March 2018.

Amid such issues, more international recognition would be a step towards Palestinian self-determination. The US’s own policy is for a two-state solution.

Yet it still opposes recognition of Palestine at the UN. That doesn’t add up.

Featured image via Associated Press – YouTube