UN RESOLUTION 2803: SUBTERFUGE

OUTSOURCING ISRAEL’S UNLAWFUL OCCUPATION

- By Ameen izzadeen

On the elusive path towards peace in Palestine, any development that seems to trigger hope is hailed as significant, even if it is an outright subterfuge disguised as a peace proposal to prolong the Palestinian plight under Israeli occupation.

One such hope-stirring ‘subterfuge’ was Monday's United Nations Security Council resolution. Presented by the United States, it was adopted with 13 members voting in favour, while China and Russia—both veto powers—abstained. Russia proposed an alternative draft emphasising Palestinian statehood. That draft rejected the so-called Board of Peace—the centrepiece of the US motion—and called for a greater UN role in the Gaza peace process. Yet the credulous Arab and Muslim nations dismissed it and backed the US resolution after Washington yielded to their pressure and agreed to insert at least a vague reference to a credible path toward Palestinian self-determination and statehood-whatever that means.

China said that it abstained because the US resolution was ambiguous regarding Palestinian governance of Gaza and the two-state solution.

Following the adoption of the resolution, the United States’ European, Arab, and Muslim allies hailed it as a major step towards permanent peace for peace-parched Palestine. Yet, in their elation, Arab and Muslim leaders seemed to forget the truism that successive UN resolutions passed since the UN General Assembly's partition resolution of November 29, 1947, have failed to deliver justice to the Palestinian people. Rather, they have turned out to be toothless documents that only prolonged Israel's illegal occupation of Palestine, leaving the despondent Palestinians in the lurch until another hope-filled subterfuge is offered as a supposed path to peace and statehood.