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France Says It Will Vote in Favor of Palestinians’ U.N. Bid
France to Vote in Favor of Palestinians’ U.N. Bid
(about 4 hours later)
PARIS — France will vote in favor of the Palestinians’ request to heighten their profile at the United Nations, the French foreign minister told Parliament on Tuesday, embracing a move that Israel and the United States oppose.
PARIS — Support in Europe for a heightened Palestinian profile at the United Nations grew on Tuesday when the French government said it would vote in favor of the Palestinians’ bid for nonmember observer status, embracing a move that Israel and the United States have opposed.
The support of France, a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, is the most significant boost to date for the Palestinians’ hopes to be granted nonmember observer status and thus greater international recognition. Russia and China, two other permanent members, have also thrown their support behind the Palestinian bid.
The announcement by France, a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, is the most significant boost to date for the Palestinians’ hopes to be granted the enhanced status in the world forum, and with that greater international recognition. Russia and China, two other permanent members, have also thrown their weight behind the Palestinian bid.
The French support appeared calculated to strengthen the position of the Palestinian Authority’s president, Mahmoud Abbas, whose Fatah party governs the West Bank, after fighting with Israel in the Gaza Strip this month that left Hamas, the Islamic militant organization that oversees Gaza, ascendant.
The backing of France and other countries appeared calculated to provide diplomatic ballast to the Palestinian Authority’s president, Mahmoud Abbas, a moderate whose Fatah party governs the West Bank. The effort came after the militant group Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, saw its credibility and standing with Palestinians rise after eight days of fighting with Israel.
The French announcement was also a blow to Israel, whose diplomats have been working feverishly to try to ensure what they call a “moral majority” in the United Nations vote, meaning that even if a majority of nations voted in favor of the Palestinian bid, the major world powers would not.
But the French announcement was also a blow to Israel, whose diplomats have been working feverishly to try to ensure what they call a “moral majority” in the United Nations vote, meaning that even if a majority of nations voted in favor of the Palestinian bid, the major world powers would not.
Speaking before the lower house of Parliament, Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said, “Next Thursday or Friday, when the question is asked, France will reply, ‘Yes.’ ”
The Palestinians said Tuesday that at least 12 European Union countries had confirmed that they were behind the Palestinian bid. With that support widening in Europe, Israeli officials acknowledged that the effort to gain a “moral majority” was crumbling.
Muhammad Shtayyeh, the Palestinian special envoy for the United Nations bid, issued a statement from New York saying: “We are very thankful to France, and we call upon other European governments to announce their support for Palestinian freedom. This is long overdue.”
Countries in the European Union are “slowly drifting toward support or abstention,” said Yigal Palmor, a spokesman for the Israeli Foreign Ministry.
The two other permanent members of the Security Council are the United States and Britain. In a statement last week, the British foreign secretary, William Hague, said the Palestinian bid jeopardized the Mideast peace process. “While there is any chance of achieving a return to talks in the coming months,” he said, “we continue to advise President Abbas against attempts to win Palestinian observer state status at the United Nations through a vote in the U.N. General Assembly. We judge that this would make it harder to secure a return to negotiations, and could have very serious consequences for the Palestinian Authority.”
Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius of France, speaking before the lower house of Parliament on Tuesday, said that on “Thursday or Friday, when the question is asked, France will reply, ‘Yes.’ ”
Ilana Stein, a spokeswoman for the Israeli Foreign Ministry, said Israel was “not surprised” by the French declaration, adding, “Of course, we remain in our opinion that this is a very harmful initiative by the Palestinians; our opinion has not changed.”
Last year, the Palestinians submitted an application to the Security Council to become a full member state of the United Nations, but the United States made it clear that it would veto the request.
The Palestinians still believe that broader recognition of their presence in the United Nations is a crucial step to a two-state solution with Israel, given the absence of any other progress. The draft resolution for the lesser but still enhanced status of nonmember observer “reaffirms the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination and to independence in their state of Palestine on the basis of the pre-1967 borders,” according to a version that circulated earlier this month. It also expresses “the urgent need for the resumption and acceleration of negotiations within the Middle East peace process” and states that the ” and states that the delineation of the permanent borders of a Palestinian state are “to be determined in final status negotiations.”
But the Palestinians have become more vague about other issues, stating in a recent official document that enhanced status would “enable Palestine to better use the U.N. and other international forums to advance its just cause for freedom and independence” and help the Palestinians “to reinforce the international position that does not recognize Israel’s occupation and practices of colonization and annexation as legitimate.”
The Israelis are concerned that the Palestinians could use enhanced status to try to join other international bodies, like the International Criminal Court, where they could pursue legal claims against Israel. Israeli officials also view the Palestinian bid for enhanced status as a non-member state as a violation of previous accords.
“This is in stark contrast to their commitment to resolve issues through negotiations,” said Mark Regev, an Israeli government spokesman.
While any vote supporting greater Palestinian status at the United Nations could help Mr. Abbas, a moderate, the Israeli concerns appear to have resonated in replies from other countries to the Palestinian bid.
A British official told The Financial Times that Britain was prepared to back the Palestinians but wanted three assurances: that the Palestinians would not then seek to join the International Criminal Court; that they would not follow with a bid for full membership; and that Mr. Abbas return to negotiations without conditions.
And The Guardian reported Tuesday, citing unnamed government sources, that Britain “is prepared to back a key vote recognizing Palestinian statehood at the United Nations if Mahmoud Abbas pledges not to pursue Israel for war crimes and to resume peace talks.”
Just over a year ago, France voted in favor of full Palestinian membership in Unesco, despite a mandated cutoff of American money to the organization. On Tuesday, Mr. Fabius called France’s position on the United Nations bid a point of “coherence,” saying, “The constant position of France has been to recognize the Palestinian state.”
President François Hollande, who has met with the leaders of both sides, has said France would support anything that would promote direct talks on a peace settlement. For that reason, before the latest Gaza clashes, France was reluctant to vote for Palestinian recognition, in part because the United States and Israel were so vehemently opposed to it as a sideshow.
But eight days of clashes, which left 160 Palestinians and 6 Israelis dead, also strengthened Hamas and further weakened Mr. Abbas, the head of the Palestine Liberation Organization, and French officials clearly decided to reinforce him. The P.L.O., which does not include Hamas, remains the sole legal negotiating authority for the Palestinians, and if there is to be a peace settlement, it is Mr. Abbas and the P.L.O. who must pursue it.
“The moment when this question will be proposed is a very delicate moment,” said Mr. Fabius, referring to the timing of the vote, soon after the recent fighting in the Gaza Strip. “At once because the cease-fire is extremely fragile, because there are Israeli elections, because there is a change in the composition of the American administration.”
Though recognition at the United Nations would be viewed by many as an implicit recognition of statehood, the “concrete expression of a Palestinian state” can come only through negotiations “without conditions” between Palestinians and Israel, Mr. Fabius added.
Though recognition at the United Nations would be viewed by many as an implicit recognition of statehood, the “concrete expression of a Palestinian state” can come only through negotiations “without conditions” between Palestinians and Israel, Mr. Fabius added.
Husam Zumlot of the Fatah Foreign Relations Commission, which has been very active in lobbying in Europe in recent months, said, “We hope other European countries will follow.” He added that he believed that more than half of the countries of the European Union would vote in favor of the Palestinians.
Israeli officials also said they were not surprised by the French announcement. Ilana Stein, a Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, said, “Of course, we remain in our opinion that this is a very harmful initiative by the Palestinians; our opinion has not changed.”
Malta, Luxembourg, Switzerland and Portugal have said they will vote for the measure, but Germany and the Czech Republic are among the countries that have opposed the bid, and Spain’s prime minister said they would wait for a formal resolution to be presented, news agencies reported. Australia has said it will abstain, the Australian news media reported. None, however, have veto power.
Muhammad Shtayyeh, the Palestinian special envoy for the United Nations bid, issued a statement from New York saying: “We are very thankful to France, and we call upon other European governments to announce their support for Palestinian freedom. This is long overdue.” The two other permanent members of the Security Council are the United States and Britain.
Scott
Sayare reported from Paris, and Christine Hauser from New York. Steven Erlanger contributed reporting from New York; Isabel Kershner from Jerusalem, and Maïa de la Baume and Aurelien Breeden from Paris.
The vote on enhanced status is fraught with symbolism, and some analysts see it staying that way. It will fall on Nov. 29, the 65th anniversary of the United Nations decision to partition the territory of Palestine into Jewish and Arab states.
If approved, it will do nothing to relieve the unresolved issues at the heart of the Palestinian-Israeli disagreements.
“There is one basic reality,” said Robert M. Danin, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and a former State Department official. “The Palestinians still control less than half of the West Bank and will control less than half of the West Bank tomorrow and the day after until the Israelis decide otherwise.”
Last year, the Palestinians submitted an application to the Security Council to become a full member state of the United Nations, but the effort went nowhere; the United States made it clear that it would veto the request.
The Palestinians still believe that broader recognition of their presence in the United Nations is a crucial step to a two-state solution. The draft resolution for the vote on status “reaffirms the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination and to independence in their state of Palestine on the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967.”
The Israelis are concerned that the Palestinians could use enhanced status to try to join other bodies, like the International Criminal Court, where they could pursue legal claims against Israel. Israeli officials also view the Palestinian bid for enhanced status as a nonmember state as a violation of previous accords.
“This is in stark contrast to their commitment to resolve issues through negotiations,” said Mark Regev, an Israeli government spokesman.
While any vote supporting greater Palestinian status at the United Nations could help Mr. Abbas, a moderate, Mr. Danin said the bid, if voted in, could lead to heightened tension with Israel.
“For the Palestinian Authority and President Abbas it is a symbolic victory that I think he feels he badly needs right now, particularly in the wake of the recent violence in Gaza, but more generally as well,” he said. “Originally he posited this as a tool in a strategy leading to renewed negotiations. In the short term it will have the opposite effect.”
Also on Tuesday, the remains of Yasir Arafat, the longtime Palestinian leader, were exhumed in Ramallah as part of an inquiry into whether he was poisoned. The atmosphere was subdued, with his people more fractured and less certain of their future than when he was alive.
Meanwhile, responding to unconfirmed reports that Washington and Israel were pressing the Palestinians to include a clause in the resolution pledging not to seek membership in the International Criminal Court, Palestinian officials said they would accept no limits on their statehood.
One Palestinian official denied the reports and said that the American pressure had been directed more generally at getting the Palestinians to drop the whole process. He said that the Palestinians had invited the Americans and the Israelis to be involved in the drafting of the resolution several months ago, but that they refused.
Mr. Regev said only that there were “ongoing talks” between the Americans and the Israelis.
Malta, Luxembourg, Switzerland and Portugal have said they will vote for the measure, while Germany and the Czech Republic are among the countries that have opposed the bid, news agencies reported.
Scott Sayare reported from Paris, and Christine Hauser from New York. Reporting was contributed by Isabel Kershner from Jerusalem; Steven Erlanger and Ethan Bronner from New York; and Maïa de la Baume and Aurelien Breeden from Paris.
