Palestinians celebrate their country`s `birth certificate` from UN

“Allah is great!”

At Yasser Arafat Square in the West Bank city of Ramallah, a Palestinian autonomous area, Palestinians cheered Thursday in watching on outdoor screens the news that the United Nations endorsed an independent state of Palestine, upgrading the country from a non-member observer organization to a non-member observer state by a vote of 138-9, with 41 nations abstaining. AFP said certain Palestinians fired gunshots in the air in an expression of their jubilation.

The U.N. vote gave Palestine its first “state birth certificate” since the world body was founded in 1945. Vatican City, or the Holy See, has observer state status and Switzerland had it for 50 years until 2002.

With the upgraded status, Palestine can gain membership in other international organizations or U.N. agencies, though the Arab state has no voting rights in the U.N. General Assembly. The country can also file a suit against a particular nation or an organization with the International Criminal Court. If Palestine sues Israel, a clash is considered inevitable.

Before the voting, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas asked the U.N. General Assembly to “issue a birth certificate” to Palestine, saying his country’s observer state status would “breathe new life into the peace process” with Israel.

Despite its people`s euphoria and cheers, Palestine as an observer state will likely face a tough road ahead. More than anything, the upgraded status has increased the possibility that peace talks with Israel will be technically stopped and that a war will break out in the Middle East. Ron Prosor, Israeli ambassador to the U.N., said, “Because this resolution is so one-sided, it doesn’t advance peace, it pushes it backwards.” The U.S. also expressed strong regret over the result, warning that the U.N. vote will provide a stumbling block to the Mideast peace process.

When Palestine won full membership in UNESCO in October last year, the U.S. stopped financial contributions to the U.N. body. Financial support from Washington accounts for 22 percent of UNESCO’s annual budget.

Korea abstained from the vote. Shin Dong-ik, deputy chief envoy to the U.N., told The Dong-A Ilbo over the phone, “We understand Palestine’s position but we found it hard to support one side because we believed that Palestine’s upgrade to observer status would likely derail the peace negotiations."

witness@donga.com