Article: Is Palestine now a state?
By: Pamela
Falk
Date: November 30, 2012
Summary:
Falk’s article, Is Palestine now a
state?, follows the United Nations General
Assembly’s vote to change Palestine’s UN status from an Observer Entity to an
Observer State. Based on this event, Falk explores the questions of what
Palestine really gained and whether or not Palestine is now a State.
According to the United Nations (U.N.), recognition
of a new State is an action that can only be taken by other States and
Governments. Because the U. N. is not a State or a Government, it has no authority
to recognize any State or a Government.”
Additionally, a state can be recognized as a state by other countries and not be a
part of the U.N. Examples of this are the Holy See (Vatican
City, a microstate) and Kosovo. The United States recognizes 195 states, but there
are only 193 members of the U.N. Falk also clarifies that the U.S. opinion is
that Palestine’s status change does not establish them as a state.
State recognition by International Law follows the 1933 Montevideo
Convention on the Rights and Duties of States, which lists five the criteria
for a state "possess a permanent population, a defined territory, a
government and the capacity to enter into relations with other States." However, in 1948, the World Court added five
other criteria for states seeking full U.N. membership. Those seeking full membership must be a
state, must be peace-loving, must accept the obligations of the U.N. charter,
must be in a position to carry out the conditions and must be willing to do so.
The U.N. Security Council previously declined the Palestinian bid for full
membership in 2011 because of questions about their ability to meet "peace
loving" requirement, and the lack of effective governmental control over
the Gaza Strip by the Palestinian Authority.
What Palestine did gain from the change in status to observer state is
the ability to apply for membership in specialized U.N. agencies and
international organizations. Falk also
points out that there are questions that might be raised out of the "statehood"
status at the U.N. like will this give the Palestinians the right of self
defense under Chapter VII of the U.N. Charter.
Falk concludes, that the Resolution does not "recognize"
Palestine as a state and that the more important issue coming out of the Resolution
is the stress it placed on the urgent need for quickly resuming negotiations. Negotiation is key, according to both Israel
and the Palestinian authority, to a real two-state solution.
Analysis:
The
ongoing conflict between Palestine and Israel is a hotly contested issue with
advocates for both sides. The change in Palestine’s status from Observer Entity
to Observer State in November of 2012, generated a great deal of discussion
about whether or not Palestine is now officially a state. However, Falk’s
article does not take sides or discuss the ongoing conflict. Instead, the
article focuses on whether an international organization, the United Nations,
can recognize a state and how International Law evaluates a state. The Barron’s
definiton of a state is “a politically
organized territory that is adminstered by a soverign government and is
recognized by the international community.” Although, the UN vote to change
Palestine’s status was supported by a majority of countries, the US and eight other
countries including Canada, opposed the change and 41 countries chose not to
vote. Therefore, based on Barron’s definition, Palestine cannot be recognized
as a state because it is not recognized by the international community.
If the criteria of a state is
broadened to include the elements of International Law mentioned in the
article, then the ongoing territorial disputes with Israel provide evidence
that shows that Palestine can not unquestionably be considered
peace-loving. So, by many definitions,
Palestine did not become a state when its UN status changed. For the Palestinian people, nothing changed.
Ultimalely, the UN called for negotiations to be resumed with a goal of
achieving a two-nation state. This will likely be an ongoing spatial conflict
and for now, Palestine remains a statelesss nation.
To better understand the article, I
reviewed the UN General Assembly document that included details about how
countries, especially Canada, voted.
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