Arab states fight for Palestinian statehood

By Christine Bro Sep 21, 2011, 14:03 GMT

Cairo - In a rare display of unity among Arab governments, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will enjoy full Arab support when he goes to the United Nations this Friday to request state membership.

Last week, foreign ministers in the Arab League convened in Cairo and pledged their countries' support for the Palestinian Authority's diplomatic efforts to gain recognition for a Palestinian state at the UN.

Furthermore, they set in motion plans for an ad hoc committee that would follow through on the matter.

Emad Gad, senior political analyst from the Al-Ahram Center of Political and Strategies Studies, told the German Press Agency dpa that 'the Palestinian Authority feels today that it can count on receiving support from Arab countries, especially under a new regime in Egypt.'

The UN bid comes amid popular upheavals that have swept the region for the past nine months and against a new reality for Arab governments - that the will of their people can no longer be ignored.

Already, popular protest movements in the Arab world this year have: forced former Tunisian leader Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali into exile; left former Egyptian president Hosny Mubarak facing criminal charges; driven Libyan leader Moamer Gaddafi into hiding; and encouraged protesters to engage in ongoing unrest in Syria and Yemen as they demand an end to autocratic rule.

Moreover, it is no longer enough to promote the Palestinian cause in words, while continuing to subject one's own citizens to abuses. Syria, which continues to view itself as the champion for the Arab cause, stands out here, given its recent bloody crackdowns on pro-democracy demonstrators.

A recent analysis by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington states that 'Arab regimes in the new Middle East will need to be more responsive to the opinions of their populations (as it) will become more hostile to Israel.'

Pressure on the Palestinian Authority is mounting, out of fear 'that perhaps popular protests will reach the Palestinian territories,' says Gad.

'With no other alternatives in sight, they must do something in the eyes of Palestinians,' he added.

Since 1991, Arab countries, including Egypt and Saudi Arabia, have tried to push forward the path of negotiations with Israel.

Perhaps most notable was the Arab peace initiative launched in 2002 during the midst of the second Palestinian intifada.

This comprehensive Saudi Arabian plan, endorsed by the Arab League, called for past UN resolutions to be the basis of partitioning historic Palestine and an attempt to end the Arab-Israeli conflict.

The Israeli government however rejected the plan as a non-starter and insisted further on returning to negotiations, which it continues to insist on today.

Palestinian and Arab governments are now convinced that Israel's negotiations have been a diversion tactic to gain time and produce more facts on the ground.

'The decision of the Palestinian Authority to go to the UN is a message to the US administration that they can no longer wait, especially since the US have failed to play an active role in pushing Israel to freeze settlement building,' Gad added.

Thus, the Arab world will have, more or less, come full circle since November 1947, when the Arab League rejected UN General Assembly resolution 181, calling for a partition of historic Palestine between Arabs and Jews.

That action, in turn, led to war and the creation of Israel in May 1948 - on more land than stipulated in the resolution, an area that was only expanded after 1967 wars between Israel and its neighbours, after which Israel annexed and occupied the remaining territory of historic Palestine.

That leaves the Palestinian Authority, struggling to maintain its legitimacy, going to the UN to request recognition for a Palestinian state comprising far less than what was on offer in 1947.

And, just like in 1947, they have the backing of the Arab League. The question is, how have the events of the Arab Spring coloured that support?