Resources on Palestinian Initiative at the UN
The 2011 session of the United Nations General Assembly is set to open on September 13 in New York City. During this gathering of the global community, the Palestinian Authority is expected to request statehood recognition at the United Nations. There is little clarity and much speculation on what form this request will take and what impact it will have.
In the midst of this challenging scenario, Churhces for Middle East Peace reasserts our deeply held belief that there is an urgent and immediate need for a just and sustainable resolution to the conflict in the Holy Land. While we believe that a vote at the United Nations cannot replace direct negotiations between the parties and a negotiated peace agreement, we also know that the status quo is not sustainable and it is time now to look past punitive measures to how we cotinue to work for a just, secure, and sustainable peace for all. Read CMEP's full statement on the Palestinian's UN initiative.
CMEP has also put together a collection of materials from trusted sources on the Palestinian initiative at the United Nations. These resources offer a combination of procedural and legal details, facts, and analysis of the possible Palestinian actions at the UN and potential results and consequences of those actions.
Statements from CMEP Member and Affiliated Organizations
- Joint Quaker Statement on Palestinian UN Bid from the American Friends Service Committee, Friends Committee on National Legislation, and Quaker United Nations Office
- Communiqué from the Heads of Christian Churches in Jerusalem on the Palestinian Bid at the UN, September 2011
- United Church of Christ: A UN Vote for Palestine
- Letter from ELCA Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson to President Obama on the Palestinian application for UN membership, September 2011(PDF)
Information and Background Resources
- Statement by Middle East Quartet: Following Palestinian Application for UN Membership, September 23, 2011
- UN Security Council Report: Palestine's Application for Admission to the UN, September 23, 2011
- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Speech at the UN General Assembly: September 23, 2011(PDF)
- Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Speech at the UN General Assembly: September 23, 2011(PDF)
- President Barack Obama's Speech at the UN General Assembly: September 21, 2011
- From the Desk of Warren Clark: Why Confrontation Now at the UN? -- Analysis by CMEP's Executive Director
- International Crisis Group: Curb Your Enthusiasm: Israel and Palestine After the UN
- Independent Legal Opinion on Palestinian UN initiative: Palestinian Statehood and the International Law of Democracy
- This document is a technical legal opinion written by Guy Goodwin-Gill, a member of the Faculty of Law at Oxford University and member of the legal team that won the 2004 judgement by the International Court of Justice that found the route of Israel's security barrier illegal. The legal opinion has been cited by several news sources including the semi-official Palestinian Ma'an News Agency. See their August 30 article, "UN statehood bid 'threatens Palestinian rights'" for some additional analysis and commentary on the legal opinion. Mr. Goodwin-Gill also wrote an article on September 7, answering some of the questions raised about his brief, which was published in the legal journal Jurist.
- Palestinian Human Rights Organization Al-Haq: Questions & Answers on Palestine's September Initiatives at the United Nations (PDF)
- Americans for Peace Now: Principles on the Palestinians, International Recognitions & the UN
- American Task Force on Palestine: Backgrounder on the Question of Palestinian UN initiatives
- Quaker United Nations Office: Palestinian Statehood at the United Nations: A Resource (PDF)
- Document from The Palestine Strategy Group: Options for Achieving Palestinian Strategy Objectives in the Light of the Breakdown of Bilateral Negotiations
- Jewish Telegraphic Agency: A primer on Palestinian statehood
- Countering the myths of a Palestinian vote at the UN in Foreign Policy by Daniel Levy: America’s attempted Quartet sophistry
- Analysis of settlement expansion in the context of Palestinian plans at the UN in Foreign Policy by Hussein Ibish: Facts on the Ground