Breaking News: UN recognizes Palestine Statehood

[asandhu23]

Breaking news so far.



Congratulations to the Palestinian posters on this site.

[FOBolous]

congrats guys bout time

[grandsalami]

Not what it seems to be...

Matthew Keys ‏@TheMatthewKeys
Ambassador Rice: "Palestinian people will wake up tomorrow and find that little about their lives have changed."

Matthew Keys ‏@TheMatthewKeys
Ambassador Rice: "This resolution does not establish that Palestine is a state."

[Gram]

Great!

[ESaady]

Mark Regev called this a "one-sided anti-Israel resolution."

lolwut

[asandhu23]

The UN General Assembly has voted to grant the Palestinians non-member observer state status - a move opposed by Israel and the US.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas told the assembly the vote was the "last chance to save the two-state solution" with Israel.

Israel's ambassador to the UN, Ron Prosor, said the bid "doesn't advance peace - it pushes it backwards".

The assembly voted 138-9 in favour, with 41 nations abstaining.
'Birth certificate'

"Sixty-five years ago on this day, the United Nations General Assembly adopted resolution 181, which partitioned the land of historic Palestine into two states and became the birth certificate for Israel," Mr Abbas told the assembly.

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

Mr Prosor said "the only way to reach peace is through agreements" between the parties, not at the UN.

"No decision by the UN can break the 4,000-year-old bond between the people of Israel and the land of Israel," he said.

Opponents of the bid say a Palestinian state should emerge only out of bilateral negotiations, as set out in the 1993 Oslo peace accords under which the Palestinian Authority was established.

Speaking after the vote, the US ambassador to the UN, Susan Rice, urged the Palestinians and Israel to resume direct peace talks and warned against unilateral actions.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called the vote "unfortunate and counter-productive", saying it put more obstacles on the path to peace.
Symbolic milestone

The Palestinians are seeking UN recognition of a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, the lands Israel captured in 1967.

France, Spain and Norway are among those urging the General Assembly to raise the Palestinians' UN status. Germany was set to abstain.

While the move is seen as a symbolic milestone in Palestinian ambitions for statehood, the "Yes" vote will also have a practical diplomatic effect, says the BBC's Barbara Plett, at the UN.

It would allow the Palestinians to participate in debates at the UN and improve their chances of joining UN agencies and bodies like the International Criminal Court.

Last year, Mr Abbas asked the UN Security Council to admit the Palestinians as a member state, but that was opposed by the US.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-20550864

I guess some websites jumped the gun?

[ESaady]

mod change da title.

[asandhu23]

on this site...

UNITED NATIONS —

The United Nations voted overwhelmingly Thursday to recognize a Palestinian state, a long-sought victory for the Palestinians but an embarrassing diplomatic defeat for the United States.

The resolution upgrading the Palestinians' status to a nonmember observer state at the United Nations was approved by a more than two-thirds majority of the 193-member world body - a vote of 138-9, with 41 abstentions.

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

Real independence, however, remains an elusive dream until the Palestinians negotiate a peace deal with the Israelis, who warned that the General Assembly action will only delay a lasting solution. Israel still controls the West Bank, east Jerusalem and access to Gaza, and it accused the Palestinians of bypassing negotiations with the campaign to upgrade their U.N. status.

The United States immediately criticized the historic vote. "Today's unfortunate and counterproductive resolution places further obstacles in the path peace," U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the speech by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to the General Assembly shortly before the vote "defamatory and venomous," saying it was "full of mendacious propaganda" against Israel.

Abbas had told the General Assembly that it was "being asked today to issue the birth certificate of Palestine." Abbas said the vote is the last chance to save the two-state solution.

After the vote, Netanyahu said the UN move violated past agreements between Israel and the Palestinians and that Israel would act accordingly, without elaborating what steps it might take.

http://seattletimes.com/html/nationw...ansstatus.html

so is it or isn't it?

[Twitchy]

The Palestinians are seeking UN recognition of a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, the lands Israel captured in 1967.

If by "the lands Israel captured in 1967" they mean "when Israel was attacked by the surrounding countries who tried to wipe Israel off the map and ended up losing the war and were forced out when their attack to eliminate the Israeli's failed", then yes, I agree with the statement.

But yeah, getting any part of Jerusalem is only kind of laughable.

[grandsalami]

CNN ‏@CNN
United Nations upgrades Palestinian status to "non-member observer state" - same category as Vatican: http://on.cnn.com/YbBpdw

[grandsalami]

If by "the lands Israel captured" they mean "when Israel was attacked by the surrounding countries who tried to wipe Israel of the map and ended up losing the fight and were forced out when their attack to eliminate the Israeli's failed", then yes, I agree with the statement.

But yeah, getting any part of Jerusalem is only kind of laughable.

exactly... Nothing will happen..

[BrianWestKins]

Doesn't the United States (along with a few other countries) have absolute veto power over something like this? I'm not saying I'm against it or anything like that, I'm just wondering how this could have happened with strong US opposition

[SDBearsFan]

Doesn't the United States (along with a few other countries) have absolute veto power over something like this? I'm not saying I'm against it or anything like that, I'm just wondering how this could have happened with strong US opposition

That would be the World's Security Council, in which the U.S., Russia, China, France and Great Britain all need to vote in favor of something to pass.

In this case, this is a United Nations resolution...the U.S. (wrongly) can object until they're blue in the face, and it won't do ****.

[nastynice]

"when Israel was attacked by the surrounding countries who tried to wipe Israel off the map

Didn't Israel attack Egypt (pre-emptively)?

[nastynice]

So does this actually mean anything for palestine, or is it more of a stepping stone?

"non-member observer." What is this exactly? Does this give any support in terms of occupied lands?