PLO Does Not Succeed In The UN

Last week, we asked you to call the Secretary of State and the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations to protest the intention of the PLO and the Arab states to elevate the status of the PLO to “Non-Voting Member.” According to the Arab (plus Cuba and Vietnam) sponsored resolution, such a change from its current status of “Non-Governmental Organization” would have given the PLO “similar rights and privileges of participation as those conferred upon member states, with the exception of voting and candidature.” We believed that the U.S.

Last week, we asked you to call the Secretary of State and the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations to protest the intention of the PLO and the Arab states to elevate the status of the PLO to “Non-Voting Member.” According to the Arab (plus Cuba and Vietnam) sponsored resolution, such a change from its current status of “Non-Governmental Organization” would have given the PLO “similar rights and privileges of participation as those conferred upon member states, with the exception of voting and candidature.” We believed that the U.S. would vote against such a motion.

Our goal was to ensure that the U.S. Mission worked to persuade other countries to join us in thwarting an effort by the PLO to violate the Oslo Accords (yet again) by unilaterally changing its status effectively to that of a state.

We succeeded.

JINSA received a call from the State Department telling us that a number of telephone calls were received, and inquiring whether we were initiating a campaign. The UN Mission became JINSA’s “Information Central” after receiving numerous calls from JINSA members across the country indicating interest in the matter. We received notes, e-mails, and phone calls telling us what they had learned.

The issue was delayed several times, and only came to a climax yesterday. The European Union introduced an amendment to the pro-PLO motion, asking to postpone any upgrade of the PLO’s status pending a review of the Palestinian delegation. According to a Reuters report, Yemen failed to block a vote on the EU amendment. Then, for its own reasons, Egypt withdrew the motion saying, “It was considered appropriate at this stage to request that the draft not be put to the vote.” UN-ese for “Forget it!” – For now.

While the issue is effectively dead for the remainder of this UN session, it may surface next fall in the next session.