AN IRELAND-PALESTINE solidarity alliance has welcomed the Irish Government’s decision to support Palestine’s proposed entry to the UN as a member state.
Sadaka, the Ireland-Palestine solidarity group formed in Dublin in 2009, says it is “really delighted” with Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs Eamon Gimore’s statement on the matter.
Board member Philip O’Connor told Metro Éireann that the alliance had been “lobbying hard” since the proposal was mooted, as negotiations between Israeli and Palestinian representatives have been “going nowhere” for two decades.
The application will be vetoed at the UN security council by the US, but Palestine could still be accorded with enhanced observer status as a non-member state by the general assembly.
According to O’Connor, such an action could rouse a number of possibilities, including Palestine inviting the International Criminal Court to investigate alleged Israeli crimes against Palestinians.
Addressing the UN general assembly, Minister Gilmore said Ireland considers as legitimate the decision by President of the Palestinian National Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, to seek membership of the United Nations.
“Palestine has the same right to membership of the United Nations as Ireland or any other member of this organisation,” he said.
However, Gilmore said admission of Palestine to the UN would not remove “the compelling need for negotiations” between Israeli and Palestinian representatives who remain deadlocked on a number of issues, notably the dimensions of a border between Israel and Palestine.
The UN’s 15-member security council has begun considering the Palestinian request but it is not known how long it will be before a decision is issued.
The Palestinian move – which called on the UN to recognise Palestine as a state based on the 1967 borders before the Six-Day war with Israel – has not has not been well received by Israel’s government, with its right-wing Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman warning of “tough repercussions” if the UN backed the Palestinian proposal.
The US says it will use its security council veto to block the application and insists that only direct peace talks can lead to a Palestinian state. The Palestinians withdrew from talks a year ago after Israel lifted a temporary ban on settlement construction.
UN deliberations look set to run in tandem with efforts to get the two sides back to negotiations within a schedule set out by the so-called ‘Middle East Quartet’ of the US, UN, European Union and Russia.
The quartet has proposed an initial meeting between the parties within the next few weeks and an agreement no later than the end of 2012.
