Local Arabs Call U.N. Ruling a Small Victory

posted on: Nov 30, 2012

Metro Detroit’s Arab Americans said a vote Thursday in the United Nations to elevate the status of the Palestinian territories is long-awaited recognition, but short of their ultimate goal.

“It’s an overdue recognition that Palestinians have been deprived of,” said Imad Hamad, national senior adviser and regional director of the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.

The U.N. General Assembly’s vote lifted the Palestinians from U.N. observer to nonmember observer state, like the Vatican.

Hamad said the action could help lead to peace between the Palestinians and Israel one day.

Palestinians want the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, captured by Israel in the 1967 war, recognized as the site of an independent nation.

“It’s a step forward toward recognizing that without equal recognition and equal co-existence, this conflict will never end,” Hamad said. “Such recognition attests that the Israeli occupation must end, and it’s time for Israel to be real about its claimed desire for peace. It’s time for the international community to be aggressively enforcing its long trail of U.N. resolutions toward this unfortunate conflict, where Israel is the only country in defiance. Double-standards will never achieve peace.”

But Sharon Lipton, president of the Jewish Community Relations Council, based in Bloomfield Hills, said the vote itself may not change much for Palestinians.

“While the Palestinian Authority has accomplished an objective at the U.N., which drew much media attention, most Palestinians in the West Bank and elsewhere may eventually be disappointed,” Lipton said in a statement Thursday.

“If Palestinian leaders are looking for a dramatic move beyond today’s quickly fading spotlights and headlines at the U.N., they should immediately return to the negotiating table with Israel and begin direct talks to achieve the peace settlement Israelis and Palestinians need and deserve.”

Orlandar Brand-Williams
The Detroit News