The Palestinian cause has long been one that has been cast aside. The delay has been in addressing the rights of Palestinians as a people and their efforts towards statehood. It is high time these are addressed and highlighted.
The Palestinians’ step of going to the United Nations tomorrow should be fully supported by the world community. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has said that he was “fully confident” of the attempt to upgrade Palestinian status at the UN to that of a ‘non-member state’.
“We are going to the UN fully confident in our steps. We will have our rights because you are with us. We ask for a just peace, which is agreed on by the international community which will give us our state with East Jerusalem as its capital. Without that, there is no hope at all,” he said. In a rare solidarity move, Hamas has also expressed its support for the decision. Abbas has indicated that a number of countries have expressed their support for the bid. Yet some have strongly attacked it and rejected it completely, including the US and Israel.
In realistic terms, perhaps the Palestinians will not fully gain what is aspired for but the very fact that they become part of the UN gives them a voice in the international community.
Such a membership will surely help in identifying the path to attaining their aspiration of setting up an independent Palestinian state.
But more importantly, it is a step towards ensuring that the Palestinian cause is not forgotten, side-lined or ignored. This has been the route for decades given the fact that it has been used and neglected depending on the end-goal or agenda of certain powers. This should no more be the case and the Palestinian people should not continue to pay the price for aggression and discrimination carried out against them by others. Now it is indeed time to be a UN member and become part of the international community.
