Rhetoric aside, here are the legal ramifications of the status change with the Palestinian Authority: UN vote turns terrorists into ‘freedom fighters’ and disputed land into ‘occupied land’.
Two Palestinian goals at UN:
Have all disputed land declared “occupied”
and have terrorists declared legitimate freedom fighters
The Palestinian Authority wishes to achieve a number of political gains by having the UN vote today, recognizing “Palestine” as a non-member observer state. First, all lands that are disputed and whose future must be negotiated according to the Oslo Accords, the PA wants declared Palestinian “occupied territory.” Second, they claim that UN recognition would change the status of Palestinian terrorists in Israeli prisons to legitimate freedom fighters and prisoners of war.
1- Changing the status of land under Israeli administration since 1967 to “occupied territory”
PA Foreign Minister Riad Al-Maliki:
PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas:
2- Changing the status of Palestinian terrorists who have targeted civilians into legitimate fighters and prisoners of war
Already last year, PA Minister of Prisoners Karake said that UN recognition would indicate that the international community retroactively legitimizes Palestinian violence:
Earlier this year, Palestinian Media Watch released a bulletin explaining the Palestinian Authority strategy. Last year, the PA went to the UN requesting full statehood recognition. In the days following last year’s request for statehood, official PA TV celebrated the request by playing clips that show maps of the future Palestinian state. As opposed to Abbas’ declaration at the UN recognizing Israel, the maps on PA TV showed a Palestinian state replacing Israel.
The following are longer excerpts of the article on Karake’s statements:
“Minister of Prisoners, Issa Karake said that the [PA] leadership’s application to the UN to wrest [from it] international recognition of a Palestinian state which is not a member of the UN will raise the legal status of the prisoners and will offer international protection of their rights and their honor… He said that the prisoners will become captives of a state (i.e., Palestine), hostages and detainees in another state (i.e., Israel). The state’s (Palestine’s) legal status will turn them into prisoners of war who are detained illegally in the prisons inside Israel. He added: ‘If the State of Palestine is recognized, it will be easy for us to call on the parties to the Geneva Conventions to assemble in order to apply the Geneva Conventions to the territories of the occupied state. This includes [applying the Conventions to] the prisoners and in addition, we will be able to prosecute the Israelis and hold them accountable for actions and crimes that have been committed and continue to be committed against the prisoners in prison.'”
[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Nov. 13, 2012]
View original Palestinian Media Watch publication at: http://palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=157&doc_id=8111