- US Explicitly Opposes Palestinian Right to Self-Determination
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- In the UN Human Rights Council yesterday, the US was
the only country to vote against a resolution supporting the Palestinians'
right to self-determination. Forty-five countries voted in favor, none
abstained.
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- http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/index.php/news/layout/set/print/content/view/full/88441
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- http://tinyurl.com/noselfdetermination
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- National self-determination has been a fundamental US
ideal from at least the early part of the Twentieth Century, being made
famous by Woodrow Wilson during World War I. While actual American policy
often strayed from that ideal, the US government always paid at least
lip service to it.
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- Supporting the UNHRC resolution would not really have
necessitated change in the status quo; it did not mean the actual termination
of the Palestinians' subordination to Israel. But the US could not bring
itself to even vote in favor of this innocuous, symbolic measure.
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- The "no" vote is especially significant because
the US professes to believe that the Palestinians should have their own
state in a two-state solution. If the Palestinians are not allowed self-determination,
then what type of state would they have? It would seem that the only type
of "state" without self-determination would be one controlled
by Israel-in short, it would be a puppet state. This is what the critics
of Israel claim is Israel's intention.
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- Certainly, "despite Washington's much-hyped tiff
with Tel Aviv," the US vote showed that it would continue to fall
lockstep in line with Israel. If the US dared not to offend Israel on
this inconsequential matter, it is impossible to believe that it would
ever take any real action to pressure Israel to allow for the creation
of an independent, viable Palestinian state.
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- Best,
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- Stephen Sniegoski
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- Transparent Cabal Website:
- http://home.comcast.net/~transparentcabal/
- Amazon listing of The Transparent Cabal:
- http://tiny.cc/zNV06
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- .______________________________________________________________________
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- Israel Told To Pay Gaza Damages
- Morning Star
- 3-25-10
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- PAY-BACK TIME: The conference room during the 13th session
of the human rights council at the UN headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland
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- The UN Human Rights Council urged Tel Aviv on Wednesday
to pay reparations to the Palestinian people for the loss and damage it
inflicted on them during last year's bloody invasion of the Gaza Strip.
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- Pakistan tabled the motion, which also suggested that
the Red Cross should investigate Israel's use of incendiary white phosphorus
weapons during Operation Cast Lead.
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- It passed by a majority of 29 to five at the UNHRC heaquarters
in Geneva, with 11 abstentions.
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- The resolution was opposed by the US, Hungary, Italy,
the Netherlands and Slovakia.
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- Britain, Belgium and France were among the countries
that abstained.
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- The council approved four other resolutions on the conflict
on Wednesday.
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- It voted nearly unanimously in favour of the right of
the Palestinian people to self-determination, with 45 countries voting
in favour and only the United States voting against. No countries chose
to abstain.
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- A second resolution agreed to the creation of an independent
committee to monitor compliance with the Goldstone Report's call for both
sides to hold independent transparent investigations into human rights
abuses during the Gaza war and from Palestinian rocket attacks.
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- A third slammed Israel for targeting Palestinian civilians
and systematically destroying their cultural heritage.
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- And a fourth condemned the Netanyahu administration for
pressing on with illegal settlement construction, including in occupied
east Jerusalem, calling for an end to the blockade of Gaza.
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- Despite Washington's much-hyped tiff with Tel Aviv, the
US stood behind Israel at Wednesday's council meeting.
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- US ambassador Eileen Donahoe said: "We are deeply
troubled to be presented once again with a slate of resolutions so replete
with controversial elements and one-sided references that they shed no
light and offer no redress for the real challenges in the region."
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- Ms Donahoe insisted that her country supported a two-state
solution even though it had opposed the resolution in support of the Palestinian
people's right to self-determination.
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- PLO ambassador Ibrahim Khraishi pointed out that the
two-state solution is predicated upon exactly that right.
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- http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/index.php/news/layout/set/print/content/view/full/88441
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- http://tinyurl.com/noselfdetermination
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- US Backs Israel At UNHRC
- By Tovah Lazaroff
- Jerusalem Post
- 3-25-10
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- Despite strained relations, US ambassador slams "one
sided" treatment of Israel.
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- The US was the only country at the United Nations Human
Rights Council to vote against all three anti-Israel resolutions, which
were approved Wednesday in Geneva.
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- It was also the only country to oppose a UNHRC resolution
in support of the Palestinian right to self determination.
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- In the last weeks America's relationship with Israel
has been strained. But in Geneva, the US took the council to task for its
treatment of Israel.
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- "We are deeply troubled to be presented once again
with a slate of resolutions so replete with controversial elements and
one sided references that they shed no light and offer no redress for the
real challenges in the region," said US Ambassador Eileen Chamberlain
Donahoe.
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- "The council is too often exploited as a platform
from which to single out Israel, which undermines its credibility,"
said Donahoe.
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- "The US strongly encourages the council to seek
an alternative to highly politicized resolutions and a permanent agenda
item focused on one country," said Donahue.
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- She suggested that this issue was best addressed under
"a robust common rubric."
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- Both parties should examine their own human rights record,
she said.
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- Her speech was delivered in advance of the vote on the
resolution for the Palestinian right to self determination by the 47-member
body.
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- Donahoe said that her country supported a two state solution
even though it opposed the resolution.
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- But PLO Ambassador Ibrahim Khraishi said that there was
no difference between belief in a two state solution and support for the
Palestinian right to self determination.
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- The Palestinian people now live under "the yoke
of unjust and bloody occupation," said Khraishi.
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- He added that he hoped next year to pass a resolution
that would allow Palestinians to excursive their right to a state.
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- On Wednesday, aside from giving its approval to Palestinian
self determination, the council approved a resolution on human rights issues
in what it called the "occupied Syrian Golan," as well as two
resolutions on Israeli treatment of Palestinians in the West Bank and east
Jerusalem.
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- Israel's ambassador to the UN in Geneva Aharon Leshno
Yaar said he appreciated the support of the US at the council. "We
have witnessed today another anti-Israeli show," he said.
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- Since its inception in 2006, most of the council's resolutions
which censure countries have dealt with Israel.
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- On Thursday the council is poised to approve a resolution
which would create an independent committee to evaluate the compliance
of both Israel and the Palestinians with the Goldstone Report.
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- Authored by South African jurist Richard Goldstone, the
report asks both the Israelis and the Palestinians to hold independent
investigations into their actions in Gaza around the time of Operation
Cast Lead.
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- http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?id=171739
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