What is the mechanism of Palestine’s full membership in the United Nations?

Mehr News, International Group: The meeting of the United Nations Security Council regarding Palestine’s full membership in this organization was held on April 15. In this session, 12 members of the Council voted in favor of Palestine’s membership, and it was the only American government that prevented the adoption of the membership resolution with its negative vote. This is despite the fact that according to the standards of international law, including the right to determine destiny, the Palestinians can be present in the international community as a state, and one of its possibilities is also within the framework of international rights and duties. Governments benefit.

The formalization of the Palestinian right to self-determination in international institutional arrangements

Since the 1970s, the right to self-determination has become one of the rules of human rights, and it is also referred to in the internal territory of countries in evaluating the legitimacy of governments. The right to self-determination is the right of all people to determine their political future and pursue economic, social and cultural development freely. Self-determination is a fundamental right without which other rights cannot be fully realized; Self-determination is not just a principle, but is the most important right in human rights and is a prerequisite for exercising all individual rights and freedoms.

This right has individual and collective aspects in international law. The individual aspect was mentioned in Article 25 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and Articles 1 and 55 of the United Nations Charter also emphasized the collective aspect of this right. Therefore, what has given the Palestinian people the right to self-determination is their nationhood.

Palestinian people believe that they belong to a single and independent nation and that they have common objective characteristics such as a specific history in a specific land with a distinct culture, at least since time The disintegration of the Ottoman Empire. The Palestinians’ belonging to a single nation is reflected in the Palestinian National Charter in the form of Palestinian identity and the Palestinian Arab nation and that they are Arab citizens. The fact that Palestinians belong to an independent nation and have the right to self-determination has been formalized in the Covenant of the League of Nations and the resolutions of the General Assembly.

On November 29, 2012, the United Nations General Assembly, in Resolution 1967, with 138 votes in favor and 9 votes against, de facto recognized Palestine as a state and Changed its status from non-member supervisory body to non-member supervisory government. However, the Palestinian territories were still under military occupation. Finally, on December 18, 2014, the General Assembly recognized the right to form an independent Palestinian state by passing a resolution with 180 votes in favor and called on all countries to continue their assistance for the faster implementation of the right to self-determination of these people. In another resolution on December 19 of the same year, it reaffirmed the permanent sovereignty of the Palestinian people over the occupied Palestinian land, including East Jerusalem.

The history of acceptance of the Palestinian right to self-determination by the Zionist regime

In addition to international procedures, the Zionist regime has also repeatedly accepted the legitimate right of the Palestinian people to self-determination in the agreements on the West Bank and Gaza Strip. In 1993, after the recognition of the Zionist regime by Yasser Arafat, the prime minister of this regime also recognized the PLO as the representative of the Palestinian people. This position of Tel Aviv was repeated in the following years. In September 1993, pursuant to the Declaration of Principles for the Arrangement of the Interim Self-Governing Government, this entity was established as an elected council of the Palestinian people for a five-year transitional period in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. Increasing the powers of the autonomous government in subsequent peace agreements, such as the Way River Agreement in 1998 and the Sharm el-Sheikh Memorandum of Understanding in 1999, brought the international legal personality of the autonomous government. The subsequent developments in Palestine, especially the people’s resistance against the Zionist regime’s invasion of the Gaza Strip, also confirmed this issue.

Process of accepting membership in the United Nations

Admission to the United Nations takes place with the recommendation of the Security Council to the General Assembly and approval by the General Assembly. To check the membership of new members, the method of voting in the Council is qualitative majority, which has made the permanent members practically have the right of veto. Examining the history of the permanent members of the Council shows that the Soviet Union resorted to veto 47 times to prevent the membership of 16 countries. Accordingly, in the years 1951 to 1954, the United Nations faced a deadlock. This issue was raised by the General Assembly in the International Court of Justice on two occasions. The second advisory opinion in March 1950 states that the General Assembly cannot accept a government as a member unless the Security Council has accepted that government’s request for membership.

support the regime Zionist; The main interest of America

Meanwhile, the main benefit of the American foreign policy in the current period is the all-round support of the occupying regime and ignoring the demands of Palestinians. After the veto of the Palestinian membership resolution, Robert Wood, the US Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations, said: “The United States continues to strongly support the two-state solution. “This vote does not show opposition to the right to establish a Palestinian state, but it is an acknowledgment that this will only be achieved through direct negotiations between the parties.” The other meaning of this passage is that the Palestinians must accept the conditions of Washington and Tel Aviv, whether to form a government or to become a member of the United Nations. If we accept that the two-state solution was presented by the United Nations in 1974 and different American governments have accepted it at different times, the American action in vetoing the full membership of Palestine is nothing but a political action from the position of a great power whose goal It is the acceptance of the terms that America put forward in the deal of the century, including:

Israel’s sovereignty over 30% of the West Bank, including the Jordan River

Disarming the Gaza Strip

Forcing the Palestinians to recognize the Zionist regime as the Jewish state

Zionist settlements are considered part of the territory of the occupying regime

security control of a large part of the West Bank and crossings by the Zionist forces

Palestinians do not have the right to have an army

Cancel all Zionist restrictions in the future and…

Result

The process of forming an independent Palestinian state has gone through various developments so far; Among other things, the United Nations General Assembly has de facto approved the formation of the Palestinian state. The priority of the Security Council and the need to go through the approval process of this council has become a strong barrier for the full membership of the Palestinian government in the United Nations. For many years, the Security Council has been considered more than a legal institution, a political institution, whose operation is based on the interests of the permanent members. The council’s internal mechanism, which is based on a qualitative majority, has made it a tool among the many tools of America to support the interests of the Zionist regime.

Sajad Moradi Kalardeh, researcher of international relations