UN Conference approves declaration and expands recognition to Palestine

The International Conference called by France and Saudi Arabia on the banks of the UN General Assembly approved, on Monday (22), the so-called New York Declaration, with 142 votes in favor.

The document provides “tangible steps, with a defined and irreversible deadline” for the creation of a Palestinian state and was accompanied by a wave of official recognitions announced in plenary.

France, Monaco, Luxembourg, Malta, and Belgium added to other European countries and reinforced diplomatic pressure on Israel, whose table remained empty during the meeting, just like the United States.

Saudi chancellor Faisal Bin Farhan, the conference of the conference, inaugurated the session after Macron’s speeches with severe criticism of Israeli occupation.

He denounced the “brutal crimes” committed in Gaza, West Bank and East Jerusalem and stated that Israel has also attacked the sovereignty of Arab and Muslim countries.

“The implementation of the solution of two states is the only way to achieve just and permanent peace,” he said as he called other governments to recognize Palestine as a “historical” step for regional stability.

Bin Farhan encouraged other governments to add to the wave of recognition announced at the conference, stating that the gesture would have immediate effect on the correlation of forces in the Middle East.

“We call on all other countries to take this historic step of recognizing Palestine, which will have a great impact on supporting the efforts to implement the two state solution, achieve comprehensive peace in the Middle East and build a new reality of peace, stability and prosperity,” he concluded.

Following, Secretary-General António Guterres stated that “recognition is a right of Palestine, not a reward” and warned that denying the condition of state “would be a gift for extremists everywhere.”

The president of the General Assembly, Annalena Baerbock, reinforced the binding character of the approved resolution, remembering that the New York Declaration expresses one of the broadest voting ever recorded in favor of Palestine.

Prevented from traveling to New York after the US -denied visa, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas spoke by video.

Abbas defended a “unified, weapons, with a single law and legitimate security forces” and stated that Hamas “will have no role in the government.”

By promising institutional reforms and elections up to one year after the ceasefire, he said the votes will take place under international supervision, and ended with an appeal to the Israelis.

“Our future and yours depends on peace. Enough of war,” he said.

Other Global South Leaders also took turns in hard speeches against Tel Aviv. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan evoked the Holocaust to accuse Genocide Netanyahu.

“The Netanyahu government today rules a society that in the past has been exterminated by the Holocaust persecution. And today his government is committing genocide against its own neighbors, with whom it shared the same land, the same water, the air and the sea for thousands of years,” he said.

Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly reinforced the strategic dimension of the theme. “The solution of two states is not just a political or moral choice. It is an imperative of security,” he said.

From there, the advertisements for formal recognition of Palestine were multiplied.

The Prince of Monca Albert II stated that his country will also take this step, stating that “peace cannot be achieved by decree, it is built by shared will.”

From Luxembourg, Prime Minister Luc Frieden stated that “rarely the perspective of a two-state solution seemed so distant and yet never international will has never been so unified.”

Maltese prime minister Robert Abela countered the argument that the measure would strengthen Hamas. “A solution of two states is the worst possible result for Hamas. That’s not what they want to see.”

Wever’s Belgian Prime Minister Bart said that his country sends “a strong political and diplomatic sign to the world,” but conditioned the implementation of the recognition of the release of hostages and the withdrawal of Hamas from the Palestinian government.

The four countries added to France in the recognition of the Palestinian state during Monday’s conference.

Read also: United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and Portugal recognize Palestine

Read also: Lula accuses Israel of genocide and snake UN by Palestinian state

From Latin America, the president of Brazil Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva denounced the expansion of settlements and the ongoing ethnic cleaning.

“How can we talk about territory in the face of an illegal occupation that grows with each new settlement? How to keep a population in the face of ethnic cleaning that we are witnessing in real time?” He asked.

Spanish President Pedro Sánchez warned that “it is urgent that there is a Palestinian people in the state we claim to recognize”, before concluding that “the Palestinian people are being annihilated” and that the massacre must be interrupted “right now”.

South Africa President Cyril Ramaphosa reaffirmed the complaint of genocide and recalled the action filed by Pretoria at the International Court of Justice.

“Israel triggered a disproportionate punishment against the people of Palestine. The only solution is that of two states,” he said. A few days earlier, Nelson’s grandson Mandela had declared that life under Israeli occupation is “worse than apartheid.”

The contrast with Tel Aviv and Washington was inevitable. Netanyahu repeated that “a Palestinian state will not be established west of Jordan” and the Israeli ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, called the “circus” meeting.

The White House stated that the recognitions would be a “present to Hamas”, while Secretary of State Marco Rubio had tried to block the conference since June.

“The US is completely isolated,” Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen summed up, who criticized Trump’s submission to Netanyahu.

The balance of the conference was unequivocal: for the first time in decades, great European powers added in a block to the global south to defend Palestine, leaving the United States and Israel increasingly cornered.

Among the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, only Washington maintained objection.

At the end, it was the impression that, in the face of an increasingly brutal occupation and American diplomacy surrendered to Tel Aviv, the consensus grows that the solution of two states is not only urgent but inevitable.

Also read: France recognizes Palestine and Macron says that “time for peace is now”