TÁNAISTE AND Minister for Foreign Affairs Eamon Gilmore will throw Ireland’s support behind the Palestinian bid for membership of the United Nations when he addresses the General Assembly this morning.
“The decision of President [of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud] Abbas to seek Palestine’s membership of the United Nations is entirely legitimate,” Mr Gilmore will say.
“Palestine has the same right to membership of the United Nations as Ireland or any other member of this organisation.”
The Tánaiste will point out the much overlooked fact that Israel’s borders are no more defined than Palestine’s. “Some seek to argue that Palestine cannot be recognised as a state because its borders remain to be agreed. But if the borders of Palestine are still a matter for negotiation, then so, by definition, are those of Israel, which is rightly a full member of the UN,” he will say.
Mr Gilmore will go part way towards meeting the position of the US and Israel by insisting on a rapid return to negotiations.
“Nobody should pretend that admitting Palestine now to membership of the UN would, of itself, change the unstable and unacceptable situation on the ground,” he will say. “It will not remove the compelling need for negotiations.”
UN recognition of a Palestinian state would, however, “give dignity and support to the Palestinian people who have suffered for too long”, the Tánaiste will say. “It would also be a tangible demonstration of the commitment of the international community . . . to an agreed settlement between two sovereign states, living side by side, in peace, security and prosperity.”
When the General Assembly votes on a resolution admitting Palestine as a member, or at least as an official observer, “provided that the resolution is drafted in terms that are fair and balanced, I have no doubt that Ireland will give its full support”, Mr Gilmore will say.
Echoing US president Barack Obama last week, the Tánaiste will say: “We know from our own experience that peace does not come easily.”
Mr Obama seemed to use the phrase as an excuse for the US failure to move the “peace process” forward; Mr Gilmore will use Northern Ireland as a source of hope.
Citing Martin Luther King’s belief in “the fierce urgency of now”, the Tánaiste will predict that “a final end to the Arab-Israeli conflict” will have a “hugely transformative power for the Middle East”.
Mr Gilmore will renew Ireland’s appeal to the government of Israel “to halt all settlement expansion” and “to end the unjust blockade of Gaza”.
He will begin his speech with the reminder that “we in Ireland are deeply committed to the United Nations”, which he calls a “constant anchor” and “uniquely valuable asset” in responding to the challenges of the world – both positive developments such as the Arab Spring, as well as the scourges of war, climate change, economic crisis and extremism.
The Tánaiste’s vision of the UN “as the embodiment of freedom and equality, a bulwark defending . . . core human values in a changing and uncertain world” contrasts sharply with Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s portrayal of the world body on Friday as biased and temporarily presided over by the “terrorist state” Lebanon.
The values of the UN are Ireland’s values, the Tánaiste will say. “It is our deep commitment to freedom and equality which places Ireland in the vanguard of international efforts to resolve conflict; to create and maintain peace; to eradicate hunger and under-development; to put an end to human rights abuses around the world.”
Mr Gilmore will contrast the deadlocked Israeli-Palestinian conflict with the miracle of the Arab Spring, noting that the word tahrir (liberation) “has now passed into all our vocabularies as a byword for all those no longer prepared to see their basic human rights suppressed”.
He will also explain how Ireland’s experience of famine makes Dublin determined to fight hunger in the world today.
Mr Gilmore will express Ireland’s wish to accede to the UN Human Rights Council next year, and is expected to mention the Irish priorities of peacekeeping – with 440 Irish soldiers serving with Unifil in southern Lebanon – disarmament, non-proliferation and the reform of the UN.