Ramona Wadi
Middle East Monitor / February 21, 2023
UN resolutions on Palestine are futile. Yet, the Palestinian Authority’s backtracking on the draft resolution which was to be presented to the UN Security Council regarding a condemnation of Israel’s recent settlement expansion is of more pressing concern. As it is renowned for, the PA accepted meagre concessions and agreed to start talks to resume security coordination, in return for halting its effort at the UNSC.
Instead, the PA opted for a presidential statement on the matter, which was approved by all UNSC members and which reminds of “the obligation of the Palestinian Authority to renounce and confront terror.” Which, plainly speaking, is a message for the PA to continue its persecution of individuals associated with, or participating in, anti-colonial resistance.
Neither the resolution nor the presidential statement would have achieved anything in terms of the Palestinian people’s political rights. However, the PA has, once again, portrayed itself as completely beholden to the US and Israel. The international community has no objection to this dynamic. As a result, any international effort, followed through or backtracked upon, only consolidates support for Israel’s colonization plans.
And the PA is on board with the dangerous farce. “We are very happy that there was a very strong united message from the Security Council against [Israel’s] illegal, unilateral measure,” Palestinian Envoy to the UN told reporters after the session. No mention of the fact that the US supplies $3.8 billion annually for Israel to implement its colonial apartheid practices, which makes any resolution or presidential statement inconsequential, since none are ever backed by punitive measures for Israel.
When the PA speaks out against the waiting game the UN employs against Palestinians, it feigns distrust. Yet the PA readily acquiesces to the tactic, keeping Palestinians shackled to the trickle of concessions and financial aid that add to the treachery of Israel’s colonial expansion.
Furthermore, as a result of succumbing to US pressure over the draft resolution, the PA will now also accept the US security plan for Jenin, which will lead to further oppression of Palestinians involved in resistance, under the guise of taking back control. In another expected twist, the PA suddenly has no more concerns about the plan, which it voiced during US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s visit to the Occupied West Bank late in January this year.
The PA’s gimmicks at the UN are hurting Palestinians back home, yet the PA prefers this dissonance to establishing a political narrative that asserts the rights of the Palestinian people. There is no coherence between the statements uttered at an international level purportedly condemning Israel, and the reality on the ground that Palestinians face daily. The PA’s dependence upon security coordination with Israel, and the humanitarian paradigm for donor aid, is what forms the premise of international support for Palestine. Yet, supporting the PA is far from supporting the Palestinian people. Had the resolution been put forth, it would have still been inconsequential. But the PA’s constant reneging on its word needs to be called out, for the treachery it is.
Ramona Wadi is an independent researcher, freelance journalist, book reviewer and blogger; her writing covers a range of themes in relation to Palestine, Chile and Latin America
