By Ajaz Ahmed
Come September and we can be sure of a high drama at the United Nations with a KNOWN end result. The Palestinians are pushing ahead with the decision of a unilateral declaration of independence. The Palestinian Authority (PA) will be submitting a request at the UN to recognize Palestine as in Independent, sovereign state.
With no end to the freeze in the so called “peace process” the Palestinians view this as the only option to get rid of the Israeli occupation. The Israeli’s on the other hand seems to be much bothered about the Palestinian move. The recent patch up of Hamas and Fatah also seems to have unnerved the hawks in Israel, though Hamas-Fatah reconciliation has always been a fragile one. They could not honour their commitment to reconciliation even after making a promise at the Holy city of Mecca.
As the PA continues to move ahead, Israel has upped the ante to counter the move at UN. 45 plus Muslim countries may well be ready (or are they?) to throw their support behind the Palestinian move, but much depends on how Europe and other powerful countries react. It remains to be seen how the influential Muslim countries use their diplomacy to garner support for the resolution from the European
block.
Even though the end result of such a move is known before hand, Israel is leaving no stone untouched to counter the move. The government has set up a “September Forum” which is working round the clock to ensure that Israel gets maximum support at the UN against the PA’s request. They have instructed their diplomats serving in the other countries to use all possible means to influence the countries to vote against Palestinian independence. They have been authorised to use all sorts of media in all corners of the world to highlight the “dangers of an Independent Palestine”. Moreover they have also been using the blackmailing tactics like renouncing all previous peace agreements. Their blackmail worked earlier too, when the PA was about to take Israel to the International Court of Justice for the war crimes it committed during the Gaza onslaught in 2006, based on the Richard Goldstone’s (Original) findings. This blackmail forced the PA to refrain from filing their case at the ICT.
Israel has an unshakeable support from many a western countries and the biggest weapon in its armoury is the US. After all diplomatic efforts by the PA, the US is going to veto the resolution. So the end result is that the UN is going to throw such a request into the dust bin. Can we expect any just treatment from the UN unless the veto power is removed? Ironically, countries like Russia and China also have a veto power, and these are believed to be Muslim friendly. But they too stand as mute spectators.