Latest UPDATE further down !
Ban Ki Moon in New York while trying to shore up UN support.
Today, about three hours from now, there will be a vote at the United Nations General Assembly that could bring a status change for the Palestinian territories. That vote is intended to recognise Palestine as a non-observer state, such boosting international recognition of West Bank, Ghaza Strip and East Jerusalem as the State of Palestine.
Even though, this can be regarded as a mere symbolic act that will not remove a single Israeli checkpoint, Palestine would then be able to join the International Criminal Court when it comes to sue Israel for its alleged war crimes. As expected, Israel and the U.S.A. are opposing a change in status for Palestinians. Furthermore, a U.S. aid package averaging $600 million per year could be at stake, together with $210 million in tax revenue that could be withheld by Israel.
Yet, this vote is being expected to pass in the General Assembly as opposition is restricted to a few UN members like the U.S.A., Israel, Britain and most probably Germany while France already declared its support of Palestine.
Editor's Comment:
Even though the act of promoting the people of Palestine might be a rather symbolic act, it should be considered that throughout human history similar symbolic gestures have triggered off important developments. In fact, many collective efforts and even wars have started from such symbolic events.
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UPDATE shortly before UN decision:
Standing ovations for Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas after his speech before the United Nations General Assembly.
Only U.S., Israel and Germany known to obstruct the Palestinian bid.
France, Spain, Portugal, Denmark and Italy have pledged to endorse the Palestinian cause. Britain ready for conditioned support of Palestine.
Israel's ambassador to the United Nations called Palestine an "Iranian terrorist camp". Conjuring up historic events that served the national interest of Israel, he played down the importance of an expected UN decision in favour of Palestine. One international observer noticed Israel's ambassador not mentioning the fact that Israel once as well came into being as a recognised independent state on behalf of a United Nations' decision.
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UPDATE after UN decision:
The pro-Palestinian draft resolution passed in favour of Palestine:
صوتت 138 دولة لصالح القرار و9 ضده وامتنعت 41 دولة
عن التصويت
138 nations voted pro, 9 nations voted no, 41 nations abstained.
After the vote: Israel's ambassador to the UN (above) and celebrating Palestinians in Ramallah (below).
The following day, November 30, German media and German national TV said in their regular news program "Palestine received observer status" which could easily be mixed up with a so-called "non-state observer status" that was held by the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) since 1974. Indeed, the Palestinian territories are now enjoying what is called an "observer state status" which gives them some additional rights and fixes the Palestinians' claim of presenting themselves to the international community as an independent state, even though partly occupied by Israel.
Al-Jazeera named it "non-observer status" while صفة دولة مراقب, the Arabic expression used by Al-Arabiya, is near to "status of a controlling or supervising state" which includes another aspect of the word "observer".
According to different German media, Germany finally decided to abstain from vote after earlier reports of Germany being decided to vote against the pro-Palestinian draft.
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