Posted on September 25th, 2011 by Marian Houk
Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu has been saying that he is ready to return to negotiations — without preconditions — at any time. He suggested meeting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the UN, right after his speech yesterday. The Palestinians say that there has to be a complete stop to Israeli settlement activities on the [...]
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Filed under: Israel, Palestine & Palestinians, Quartet, UN Security Council, United Nations
Posted on September 24th, 2011 by Marian Houk
Mahmoud Abbas got a second series of standing ovations — a week after he told his people from Ramallah on 16 September that he was going to ask the UN Security Council for full UN membership for the State of Palestine — on 23 September, when he addressed the UN General Assembly in New York. [...]
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Filed under: Israel, Palestine & Palestinians, UN General Assembly, UN Secretary-General, UN Security Council
Posted on September 22nd, 2011 by Marian Houk
It took the American administration several years to denounce the obvious stalling tactics of Israel’s then-Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir after the launch of the Madrid Peace Conference in October 1991. By then, back-stage talks between Israeli and Palestinian “academics” and “individuals” over dinners in idyllic settings in northern Europe had reached the stage that the [...]
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Filed under: Israel, Palestine & Palestinians, UN General Assembly, UN Security Council, US in UN, United Nations
Posted on September 22nd, 2011 by Marian Houk
U.S. President Barack Obama, in his annual address to the UN General Assembly, said Wednesday that “Palestinians deserve to know the territorial basis of their state”. As if they don’t know. Or — as if someone else should tell them. Since their 1988 Declaration of Independence, the Palestinian National Council agreed to form their state [...]
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Filed under: French, Israel, Palestine & Palestinians, UN General Assembly, UN Secretary-General, UN Security Council, United Nations
Posted on September 21st, 2011 by Marian Houk
Rallies are taking place in cities around the West Bank today, organized by the non-official but officially-approved “National Committee – Palestine: UN State 194″. Palestine TV, which is covering the Ramallah rally live, listed a series of uninspiring speeches for demo in ex-Clock Square [now Yasser Arafat Sq] in Ramallah, then performance by Al-Ashaqeen. At [...]
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Filed under: BAN Ki-Moon, Palestine & Palestinians
Posted on September 20th, 2011 by Marian Houk
The news this morning from CNN was that “international” diplomats — mostly European — were working to arrange some kind of face-saving deal whereby Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas would present an official request for full UN membership to the UN Security Council, but not ask for a vote. This story is reported here. It is [...]
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Filed under: Israel, Palestine & Palestinians, UN General Assembly, UN Security Council, US in UN, United Nations
Posted on September 19th, 2011 by Marian Houk
Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas has arrived in New York for what has looked like an eventful week that would culminate in a Palestinian bid for full membership in the United Nations. Abbas met the UN Secretary-General BAN Ki-Moon today — but did not submit the letter that has to be given to the UN Secretary-General [...]
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Filed under: BAN Ki-Moon, Israel, Palestine & Palestinians, UN General Assembly, UN Security Council, US in UN, United Nations
Posted on September 17th, 2011 by Marian Houk
In a briefing called Saturday morning for “Arabic” journalists [only] in Ramallah, Nabil Shaath reportedly said — according to a account in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, published here — that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas “will apply for membership to the Security Council, which may take few days to bring it up for discussion and then [...]
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Filed under: Palestine & Palestinians, UN General Assembly, UN Security Council, United Nations
Posted on September 16th, 2011 by Marian Houk
One week before he is scheduled to address the UN General Assembly in New York, Mahmoud Abbas — Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization [PLO], who is also serving beyond his term as President of the Palestinian Authority — finally addressed the Palestinian people this evening to explain what he is [...]
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Filed under: Boundaries & Borders, Israel, Palestine & Palestinians, UN General Assembly, UN Security Council, United Nations
Posted on September 16th, 2011 by Marian Houk
In this Al-Jazeera International interview with a nicely designed set — possibly in the UNSG’s 38th floor office, it seems — UNSG BAN Ki-Moon speaks with Al Jazeera’s Kristen Saloomey, and says: “Membership in UN is something that is up to the member states of the UN … It does not fall within my mandate [...]
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Filed under: BAN Ki-Moon, Palestine & Palestinians, UN Secretary-General, United Nations
