UN votes to upgrade Palestinian status

Alhamdulillah. 

Dan tahniah kepada 138 negara yang berani meletakkan keadilan di tempatnya. Sesungguhnya rakyat Palestine telah lama menderita. Semoga ini adalah titik permulaan untuk pembebasan kepada mereka.

9 negara yang menentang dan kalah dalam pengundian ini adalah Israel, Amerika Syarikat, Canada, Republik Czech, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau dan Panama.

Kalau tak silap, Jerman dan United Kingdom adalah antara 41 negara yang memilih untuk tidak mengundi. Harap-harap, Malaysia tak termasuk dalam kelompok ini.



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UN votes to upgrade Palestinian status - Middle East - Al Jazeera English

The United Nations has voted overwhelmingly to recognise a Palestinian state.

The vote, which was taken at a meeting of the body in New York on Thursday, represents a long-sought victory for the Palestinians but a diplomatic defeat for the US, with 138 countries voting in favour of the upgrade.

Nine countries voted against it and 41 others abstained.

A Palestinian flag was quickly unfurled on the floor of the General Assembly, behind the Palestinian delegation.

The new status is an indirect recognition of the Palestinians' claims on statehood in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza Strip. It allows them to join a number of UN agencies, as well as the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Immediately after the results were announced, US ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice reiterated the US opposition to upgrading the Palestinians to a nonmember an observer "entity".

"Today's unfortunate and counter-productive resolution places further obstacles in the path to peace. That is why the United States voted against it," she said.

"The backers of today's resolution say they seek functioning, independent Palestinian state at peace with Israel so do we. But we have long been clear that the only way to establish such a Palestinian state and resolve all permanent status issues is through the crucial if painful work of direct negotiations between the parties."

The US and Israel voted against recognition, joined by Canada, the Czech Republic, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau and Panama.

"Long after the votes have been cast, long after the speeches have been forgotten, it is the Palestinians and the Israelis who must still talk to each other and listen to each other," Rice said.

Meanwhile, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon renewed his call for the resumption of direct negotiations between Israel and Palestine.
  

"Today's vote underscores the urgency of the resumption of meaningful negotiations," Ban said. 

"My position has been consistent all along. I believe that the Palestinians have a legitimate right to their own independent state. I believe that Israel has the right to live in peace and security with its neighbors. There is no substitute for negotiations to that end."

Dancing in the streets

As the votes were cast, there was silence among the thousands gathered in the West Bank city of Ramallah, which erupted with cheers of joy and chants of "God is greatest" when approval was announced.

"I'm happy they declared the state even though it's only a moral victory. There are a lot of sharks out there, but it feels good," 39-year-old Rashid al-Kor told AFP.

Nearby, Palestinian-American Laila Jaman was waving a handful of Palestinian flags and carrying a picture of US President Barack Obama and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.

"I feel so good, I cannot describe my feelings, it's as if we reached the end of a dark tunnel. With a Palestinian state we are now united as a people and a leadership," she said breathlessly.

There were celebrations in cities across the West Bank, as well as in Gaza, where the Hamas government offered tepid support for the bid and allowed backers to express their solidarity with the move.

In Bethlehem, fireworks were shot into the night sky, and churches rang their bells at midnight to mark the occasion.

Ali Abunimah, Palestinian-American activist and founder of Electronic Intifada, told Al Jazeera that the celebrations were uncalled for and that the UN was a "giant distraction."

"I wish that all this hype and dancing in the streets of Ramallah and self-delusion among the people were for a real achievement that actually returned rights to the Palestinian people.

"There is something incongruous and tasteless about the Palestinian Authority sponsoring a dance festival on the streets of Ramallah while families in Gaza are still mourning their children.

"This (vote) is a giant distraction. A cheap gesture, which allows people to celebrate as if they were in a football match."

Difficulties ahead

Abbas addressed the General Assembly, saying that Palestinians were not seeking to "delegitimise" Israel, but to affirm the legitimacy of Palestine as a state.

Abbas referenced the recent Israeli assault on Gaza, saying that Palestine had come to the UN at time when they were "still tending to [their] wounds and still burying [their] beloved martyrs of children, women and men who have fallen victim to the latest Israeli aggression".

"What permits the Israeli government to blatantly continue with its aggressive policies and the perpetration of war crimes stems from its conviction that it is above the law and that it has immunity from accountability and consequences [...] The moment has arrived for the world to say clearly: Enough of aggression, settlements and occupation."

"The General Assembly is called upon today to issue a birth certificate of the reality of the State of Palestine."

"The moment has arrived for the world to say clearly: Enough of aggression, settlements and occupation."

Mark Regev, spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, told Al Jazeera that the comments made by Abbas "make it more difficult" for Israel to negotiate with Palestine.

"Instead of speaking the language of reconciliation, we had libelous charge after libelous charge against the Israeli people."

Regev called "a distortion of history" how Abbas characterised the UN resolution calling for a two-state solution exactly 65 years ago.

"The way he talked about it. He forgot the most important thing. It was the Israeli side, the Jewish side that accepted accepted two states for two people."

Kenali Professor Richard A Falk

Mungkin ramai tertanya-tanya siapakah Professor Richard Falk. Aku pun tak kenal tak cinta sarjana kelahiran Amerika Syarikat yang berketurunan Yahudi ini, santak pagi ini. Itu pun kerana aku membaca keratan akhbar tentang laporan PBB yang dikeluarkan oleh Professor Richard Falk pagi minggu lepas.

Ada banyak saranan dan gesaan yang terkandung dalam laporan tersebut, termasuklah cadangan untuk memboikot multinational companies (MNCs) yang mendapat manfaat daripada penempatan haram Yahudi di wilayah Palestin. Syarikat-syarikat ini didakwa telah melanggar piagam hak asasi manusia, dan antaranya ialah Motorola, Hewlett Packard, Volvo dan Caterpillar.

Jom kenali cendiakawan ini di Richard A. Falk@Wiki dan jom baca artikel-artikel beliau di blognya - Citizen Pilgrimage.

U.N. expert calls for boycott of companies in Jewish settlements

Thu, Oct 25 2012

By Michelle Nichols

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - A frustrated U.N. investigator on Palestinian human rights urged a boycott of companies tied to Jewish settlements in occupied Palestinian Territories on Thursday, but the United States criticized the call as "irresponsible and unacceptable."

Richard Falk, the independent special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian Territories, said the companies - which include Hewlett Packard, Motorola, Volvo and Caterpillar - should be boycotted until they adhered to international rights standards and practices.

Settlements built on territory Israel captured in a 1967 war remain a key obstacle to a resumption of Palestinian-Israeli peace talks stalled since late 2010. About 311,000 Israeli settlers and 2.5 million Palestinians live in the West Bank.

"The focus on business activities is partly an expression of frustration about the inability to obtain compliance with these fundamental legal obligations of Israel and the ineffectiveness of the U.N. efforts to condemn settlement expansion," Falk, a U.S. academic who is himself Jewish, told a news conference.

"There have been calls on Israel for literally decades to stop building the settlements," he said. "The effort to reach out beyond the traditional way that the U.N. condemns things is an effort to take our role seriously enough to feel that we should try to use what influence we have to change behavior."

The United Nations deems all Israeli settlements in the West Bank to be illegal. Israel disputes this and distinguishes between about 120 settlements it has sanctioned and about 100 outposts erected by settlers without authorization.

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, rejected Falk's report, while the Israeli U.N. mission described it as "grossly biased" and "completely divorced from reality."

"His call for a boycott of private companies is irresponsible and unacceptable," Rice said in a statement.

"Mr. Falk's recommendations do nothing to further a peaceful settlement to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and indeed poison the environment for peace."

CONTROVERSIAL FIGURE

The Palestinians want to establish a state in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem and say settlements deny them a contiguous, viable entity. There have been more than two decades of efforts to negotiate the creation of a Palestinian state.

"The whole issue of Palestinian self-determination is at risk here," Falk said. "I would connect closely this effort to give concreteness to our concern by holding businesses that do profitable activities (in the West Bank) responsible with these fundamental issues of self-determination."

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is also pushing for an upgrade of its U.N. status to a sovereign country, which would allow it to join bodies such as the International Criminal Court and file complaints against Israel for its continued occupation.

Falk lists 13 companies in his report to the U.N. General Assembly, but notes that this is a small portion of the businesses operating or dealing in the Jewish settlements.

Aside from the boycott, Falk also urged civil society to pursue legal and political redress against companies "especially where allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity can be substantiated in relation to settlement activities."

Caterpillar said in a statement that Falk's report was inaccurate and misleading and "reflects his personal and negative opinions toward Israel." The company said it sells products to the U.S. government, which are then sent to Israel.

Hewlett Packard said Falk was "far from an independent and unbiased expert in this matter" and that the company has a strong human rights policy and complies with the highest standards in every market in which they operate.

Motorola and Volvo were not immediately available for comment.

Falk has long been a controversial figure. In 2011 he wrote on his blog that there had been an "apparent cover-up" by U.S. authorities over the September 11, 2001 attacks and he also posted an anti-Semitic cartoon, which was later removed.

He was appointed by the Geneva-based Human Rights Council to his position in 2008, but Israel has barred him from entering the country or occupied territories under its control.

(Editing by Todd Eastham)