Palestinians Win Statehood Status at U.N. Over U.S. Objections
The U.N. General Assembly voted today to approve Palestinians' request to be upgraded to a "non-member observer state," defying opposition by the U.S. and Israel.
Before the vote, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas told the General Assembly that it "is being asked today to issue the birth certificate of Palestine."
Of the 193 countries in the General Assembly 138 voted to recognize Palestine. Only nine, including the U.S., voted against it. Another 41 countries abstained.
In the West Bank, Palestinians erupted in a roar of cheers, horn honking and fireworks as crowds thronged the main square of Ramallah to celebrate the world's recognition of their state.
The historic vote recognizes Palestine as a state and gives Palestine the right to join U.N. agencies. It opens the door for Palestine to become a party to the International Criminal Court, allowing them to bring cases against Israel.
Israel and the U.S. argued that the vote is purely symbolic, would change nothing on the ground, would hurt peace talks and could affect U.S. funding.
Most European countries were expected to side with the Palestinians in this dispute.
The only countries voting against the resolution besides the United States and Israel were Canada, the Czech Republic and some Pacific Island states.
Hazem Bader/AFP/Getty Images People gather in front of a poster of... View Full Size
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Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Families Pray for Ceasefire Watch Video U.S. allies France, Sweden and Italy all voted for the resolution, as did countries where the U.S. is expected to hold sway like Mexico, Afghanistan, India and Iraq.
Germany, Poland and the United Kingdom all stayed out of the fray, preferring to abstain.
U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice downplayed the significance of the victorious resolution.
"Today's grand pronouncement will soon fade and the Palestinian people will wake up tomorrow and find that little about their lives has changed, save that the prospects of a durable peace have only receded," Rice said.
"The United States therefore calls upon both the parties to resume direct talks without preconditions on all the issues that divide them and we pledge that the United States will be there to support the parties vigorously in such efforts. The United States will continue to urge all parties to avoid any further provocative actions - in the region, in New York and elsewhere," she said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office dismissed the significance of the vote.
"This is a meaningless decision that will not change anything on the ground. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has made it clear that there will be no establishment of a Palestinian state without a settlement that ensures the security of Israel's citizens," the statement said.
"He will not allow a base for Iranian terrorism to be established in Judea and Samaria [the West Bank], in addition to those that have [already] been established in Gaza and Lebanon... By going to the U.N., the Palestinians have violated the agreements with Israel and Israel will act accordingly," the Israeli statement said.
After the results were announced, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon urged leaders of Israel and Palestine to resume peace talks.
"Today's vote underscores the urgency of the resumption of negotiations," he said.
The vote went ahead despite calls to Abbas from President Obama and other U.S. officials to abandon the bid. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Wednesday that only direct Palestinian negotiations with Israel can bring about any real solution.
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
Israel shouldn't/doesn't need to budge. The Palestinians need to recognize Israel's right to exist and Palestinians need to end their violence against Israel. The fact is that the Palestinians are just pawns of Iran and other Islamofascists in the region that are hell-bent on wiping Israel from the face of the earth. The Palestinians and their jihadist overlors must be stopped.
George Amedore & Christian Klueg for NYS Senate 2016 Pete Vroman for State Assembly 2016[/size][/color]
"For this is what America is all about. It is the uncrossed desert and the unclimbed ridge. It is the star that is not reached and the harvest that is sleeping in the unplowed ground." Lyndon Baines Johnson
Obama punts to Congress over repercussions for UN Palestine vote By Julian Pecquet - 12/02/12 06:00 AM ET
The White House won't seek to punish the Palestinian Authority for this week's statehood vote at the United Nations, but did not vow to veto pending legislative proposals to cut off U.S. aid in retaliation.
The U.N. General Assembly voted 138-9 on Thursday to recognize the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) as a non-member observer state, over the strident objections of the United States and Israel. In response, the Senate is expected to vote next week on legislation placing new restrictions on the $600 million in annual U.S. aid to the Palestinian Authority.
Questions about repercussions are “better directed at the Congress than at us,” State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Friday. She said the State Department is still trying to release $495 million in pending funds for fiscal year 2012 that were held up following the Palestinians' failed effort last year to become a full member of the U.N.
“We will also continue to try to support the Palestinian Authority, because this money supports their ... ability to administer the territories, provide security, and take care of the needs of the Palestinian people, who we continue to believe need our support, need the international community's support.”
And White House spokesman Josh Earnest stopped short of issuing a veto threat against congressional efforts to block the aid. He told reporters that the administration does not have any information to share about “any specific actions that are being contemplated.”
“The reason for that is simply that our aid to the Palestinians is an important part of our relationship,” Earnest said. “And we believe that we can – the United States can and should play a constructive role in facilitating negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians.”
U.S. officials say they believe the statehood vote could harm the chances for a two-state solution. They're concerned Palestine may use it to pursue criminal charges against Israel at the International Criminal Court, for example.
The Senate is expected to vote next week on bipartisan legislation that would cut off U.S. aid if that happens as an amendment to the pending Defense authorization bill, a Senate aide said. The bill, championed by Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) and Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), would also shutter the PLO’s Washington office unless the president determines that the Palestinians are engaged in “meaningful negotiations” with Israel.
The senators said Thursday they did not want to immediately terminate aid in order to preserve the chance for a negotiated two-state solution with Israel.
“It's a very clear message to the Palestinians: the choice is yours,” Menendez said. “We could have pre-empted that choice. The choice is yours. If you return to a negotiation, we're good.”
The Israel lobby AIPAC urged passage of the bill in a letter to senators Friday.
“The amendment responds directly to yesterday’s harmful U.N. General Assembly decision to grant non-member state status to Palestine,” the letter states. “The amendment is designed to warn the Palestinian leadership about the negative consequences to U.S-PLO relations should the PLO exploit this decision in an attempt to delegitimize Israel.”
Some Republicans want to punish both PLO leader Mahmoud Abbas (aka Abu Mazen) and the U.N.
Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), the chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, called on Congress to impose “severe economic consequences” for the U.N.'s “irresponsible” action. She said the United States should cut the $600 million in annual funding for the Palestinian Authority as well as any funding for U.N. agencies that recognize Palestine as a state.
“It’s crystal clear that Abu Mazen and his cronies are not partners for peace and do not value their relationship with the U.S.,” she said in a prepared statement. “The U.S must stand with our ally Israel and offer no U.S. taxpayer dollars and no political support for the PLO.”
And Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) offered an amendment to the defense bill that would cut off the almost $600 million the United States pays in U.N. dues every year.
Other countries have already taken action.
Israel on Friday announced the approval of 3,000 new settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, earning a rebuff from the State Department.
The same democrats that opposed apartheid in South Africa support it in Israel.
Apartide against whom?
"Approval ratings go up and down for various reasons... An example is the high post 911 support for GWB even though he could be said to be responsible for the event." --- Box A Rox '9/11 Truther'
Melania is a bimbo... she is there to look at, not to listen to. --- Box A Rox and his 'War on Women'
How is it then that all non-Jewish Israeli citizens have the exact same rights and privlages as Jewish Israeli citizens if there is 'aparthide' as you claim?
Better yet...
How is it 'aparthide' when Israel allows permanent residency, entitles municipal services and municipal voting rights to those who rejected citizenship after the Six Day War?
Yeah...You have no clue on what your talking about.
"Approval ratings go up and down for various reasons... An example is the high post 911 support for GWB even though he could be said to be responsible for the event." --- Box A Rox '9/11 Truther'
Melania is a bimbo... she is there to look at, not to listen to. --- Box A Rox and his 'War on Women'
How is it then that all non-Jewish Israeli citizens have the exact same rights and privlages as Jewish Israeli citizens if there is 'aparthide' as you claim?
Better yet...
How is it 'aparthide' when Israel allows permanent residency, entitles municipal services and municipal voting rights to those who rejected citizenship after the Six Day War?
Yeah...You have no clue on what your talking about.
Really? How about highway 443 and the military blockades that restricted Palestinian travel on it to virtually ZERO? Israels population is made up of 20% Palestinians and they were restricted by law on this public road - BUILT ON THEIR LAND. The Israeli government was contemplating a two tier road system - one for Israeli's and one for Palestinians. The Israeli government went into the West Bank and took Palestinian land, built a highway, then restricted Palestinians from using the highway built on their land.
How is it then that all non-Jewish Israeli citizens have the exact same rights and privlages as Jewish Israeli citizens if there is 'aparthide' as you claim?
YUP! You know EXACTLY what you are talking about. Just because FOX NEWS and and the American media doesn't report it, doesn't mean it doesn't exist.
Keep on consuming the propaganda fed to you. Mmmmmm...
Quoted Text
Citizenship law makes Israel an apartheid state
We do not have to identify the characteristics of South African apartheid in the civil rights discrimination in Israel in order to call Israel an apartheid state. It is best that we not try to evade the truth: The Citizenship Law's existence turns Israel into an apartheid state.
By Amos Schocken | Jun.27, 2008 | 12:00 AM
THIS STORY IS BY Amos Schocken The government's decision last week to extend the validity of the Citizenship Law (Temporary Order), for another year, is evidence that the legal barriers preventing severe discrimination against Israel's Arab citizens and harm to their civil rights have been removed.
This extension is the eighth since the law was first passed in 2003, and it shows just how naive Justice Edmond Levy's position was when he refused to join in the 2006 decision by five judges from the High Court of Justice, who stated that the law was unconstitutional, that it contravened the Basic Law on Human Dignity and Freedom, and that it must be removed from the law books. Levy explained his refusal by saying that he saw no need to intervene because only two months remained until the law expired. However, at the end of the two months, the law was extended by a year, and now they want to extend it for yet another year.
Had Levy known that the law's limited validity was nothing but a deception aimed at preparing a discriminatory and unconstitutional law, there is no doubt he would have joined the five justices' majority opinion that it was unconstitutional and should be removed. We must hope that the High Court of Justice, when it rules on the new petition submitted against the law after it was extended in 2006, will take into account that the term "temporary provision," which both the government and Knesset take pains to stress, is a deception. We are talking about, in effect, a permanent law.
The law stipulates that the interior minister does not have the authority to approve residence in Israel for a resident of Judea and Samaria (unless, of course, they are Jews - that is, settlers). This is so even regarding family reunions, meaning marriage, when it comes to Palestinian spouses who are younger than 35 (for men) or 25 (for women). In effect, the law prevents young Israeli citizens from marrying the spouse of their choice and living with this spouse in Israel, if the spouse is a Palestinian from Judea and Samaria.
It is obvious that this has barely any effect on the right of young Israeli Jews to live in their country with the spouse of their choice, because there are hardly any marriages between Israeli Jews and Palestinians from Judea and Samaria. On the other hand, these Palestinians constitute Israeli Arabs' natural pool for choosing a spouse. For this reason, the law severely discriminates when comparing the rights of young Israeli Jewish citizens and young Israeli Arab citizens.
When the law was first passed in 2003, supposedly as a temporary one-year measure, it was accompanied by security reasoning - the risk of implanting terrorists in Israel via marriage. The reasoning was faulty even at that time: Every Palestinian who wishes to enter Israel must be addressed individually. It is the Shin Bet security service's task to do this and thus carry out its mission - protecting the security of Israel's citizens such that the country remains democratic, with equal rights for all. However, as the years go by, it becomes clear that the security argument and the term "temporary measure" are merely a deception aimed at "koshering" discriminatory legislation for demographic reasons.
The claim that there are characteristics of an apartheid state in Israel is widely heard in the Western world. The word apartheid is catchy and understood in many parts of the world, which makes it useful to send a message that we resent and which we claim has no connection with reality in Israel. However, we do not need to replicate exactly the characteristics of South African apartheid within discriminatory practices in civil rights in Israel in order to call Israel an apartheid state. The amendment to the Citizenship Law is exactly such a practice, and it is best that we not try to evade the truth: Its existence in our law books turns Israel into an apartheid state.
The government decided to add the Gaza Strip to the list of countries for which the interior minister does not have the prerogative to approve residence in Israel on the grounds of family reunions, regardless of age. Both the list and the new addition are superfluous and harmful. Since Hamas gained control, no one enters or leaves Gaza anyway, and the new restriction harms couples' cases from the time when there was passage between Israel and Gaza. There is no need for this affront.
Haaretz is an independent daily newspaper with a broadly liberal outlook both on domestic issues and on international affairs.
"Approval ratings go up and down for various reasons... An example is the high post 911 support for GWB even though he could be said to be responsible for the event." --- Box A Rox '9/11 Truther'
Melania is a bimbo... she is there to look at, not to listen to. --- Box A Rox and his 'War on Women'
What does the source have to do with reporting the Citizenship Law?
I know it hurts Buck...It is true what they say, ignorance is bliss. Just slowly absorb the reality about the great state of Israel. I know you want to hang on to the reality you've been spoon fed. But I promise, it's ok to look at the reality. It will only hurt you for a moment, then you can adjust to it. You don't have to be embarassed, most Americans are just as ignorant to the facts as you.
I'm sorry I had to blow your "equal citizenship" and "same exact rights" bullshit out of the water. I couldn't allow you to perpetuate the lie any longer.
Here you go Buck, maybe these sources will work. I know it's not Fox News.
Quoted Text
Israel citizenship ruling slammed as 'racist'
Israeli rights groups and MPs on Thursday denounced a court ruling upholding a law that prevents Palestinians married to Arab Israelis from obtaining Israeli citizenship or residency.
At present, Palestinian men over 35 and women over 25 married to Israeli citizens can only obtain short-term permits to be in Israel By contrast, the ruling was welcomed by Israeli right-wingers.
"It is a dark day for the protection of human rights and for the Israeli Supreme Court," attorneys Dan Yakir and Oded Feller from the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) said in a statement.
ACRI was one of three rights groups that had appealed to the Supreme Court over a law preventing the Palestinian spouses of Israeli citizens from obtaining either Israeli citizenship or residency.
At present, Palestinian men over 35 and women over 25 married to Israeli citizens can only obtain short-term permits to be in Israel.
They have limited permission to work, but the permits must be regularly reviewed and they get no social benefits.
NGO: Ruling on hospital care bad for Ashdod poor, but even worse for social justice.
The Association for Civil Rights in Israel reacted with dismay on Sunday at the High Court of Justice’s Thursday ruling which not only rejected its claim of discrimination against the poor at a new Ashdod Medical Center, but also imposed an unprecedented NIS 45,000 fine on ACRI.
ACRI had claimed discrimination against the poor due to the inclusion of a program at the medical center where 25 percent of the care provided could be privatized, meaning persons with the means to do so could pay extra to receive special care from particular doctors.
In its petition to the High Court, ACRI argued that equal medical care for all of the state’s citizens was a fundamental right, and that providing different levels of care at a state subsidized medical center violated those basic rights. The state paid over NIS 400 million – well over half the cost of establishing the medical center.
You can read the rest of it....Also a bit of history on them from your other leftist source
To each his own justice (Why does that sound so familiar?....Hmmm)
The ACRI started out in 1972 as a modest academic and elitist institution. The organization was completely Jewish and mainly influenced by changes in civil society in the United States. Now, 35 years later, the organization employs 45 workers, 12 of them attorneys, and its management includes Arab, religious, lesbian, homosexual and Russian-speaking representatives. This year, ACRI will grant its Emil Greenzweig Human Rights Award to the Kolech organization, which may be defined as both religious and feminist. That choice ruffled some feathers within the organization. There were some who asked, "who are these women?" and others who objected to the fact that Kolech included female settlers in its ranks. Though it was approved, the choice aptly illustrates the inherent difficulty of defending civil rights in Israel.
"Approval ratings go up and down for various reasons... An example is the high post 911 support for GWB even though he could be said to be responsible for the event." --- Box A Rox '9/11 Truther'
Melania is a bimbo... she is there to look at, not to listen to. --- Box A Rox and his 'War on Women'
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