[Salon] UN Resolution on Palestinian Self-Determination

[Chas Freeman <cwfresidence@gmail.com>]

FM: John Whitbeck

A vote at the United Nations yesterday (https://press.un.org/2024/gashc4430.doc.htm) confirmed yet again the degree to which the United States, by virtue of its "unbreakable bond" with Israel, is divorced and isolated from the moral conscience of mankind.

By a General Assembly vote of 170-6 with 9 abstentions, the UN adopted a resolution (https://documents.un.org/doc/undoc/ltd/n24/336/45/pdf/n2433645.pdf) which "Reaffirms the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, including the right to their independent State of Palestine" and "Urges all states and the specialized agencies and organizations of the United Nations system to continue to support the Palestinian people in the early realization of their right to self-determination."

The 170 states voting in favor of this resolution included all European Union member states, Australia and Canada.

The six negative votes came from Israel, the United States, Argentina, Micronesia, Nauru and Paraguay.

The nine abstaining states were Kiribati, Liberia, Palau, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Rwanda, Togo, Tonga and Tuvalu.

The UN passes, by roughly similar majorities, numerous resolutions in support of Palestine every year, so it is almost certain that the negative American vote on this resolution was of the automatic, knee-jerk variety, not requiring any consultation with Tony Blinken, let alone Joe Biden.

However, a last-chance UN Security Council vote on full UN member state status for the State of Palestine (https://www.counterpunch.org/2024/11/15/un-membership-for-palestine-now) would require consultation and serious consideration at the highest level of the U.S. government.

If President Biden or whoever is now making his decisions for him is not isolated from reality as well from the moral conscience of mankind, the decider should be aware that an American veto of Palestine now, in the midst of a genocide which has horrified the world, would confirm the status of the United States in the eyes of much or most of mankind as, like Israel, an outlaw, rogue and pariah state -- and might view that as undesirable.

NOTE: The recent presence of Argentina on the List of Shame in UN votes is entirely attributable to its full-spectrum-weird new president, Javier Milei, who, in addition to living with four (or more?) cloned reproductions of his late, beloved dog Conan (https://english.elpais.com/international/2024-04-26/the-mystery-of-mileis-cloned-dogs-argentina-wonders-if-there-are-four-or-five.html) rather than with another human being, is an uber-rabid Zionist. He recently fired his foreign minister after Argentina did not vote against Palestine in another UN vote.