On the anniversary of the UN 1947 Partition Plan, the PA asserts its allegiance with colonialism

by Ramona Wadi

A picture released 15 September 1948 shows Arab Palestinians refugees returning to their village after its surrender during the 1948 Arab war against the proclamation of the Israeli State. On November 29, 1947, the United Nations’ General Assembly voted resolution 181 on the partition of Palestine in two states, one Jewish and one Arab. [Photo by INTERCONTINENTALE / AFP via Getty Images]

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas had the opportunity to denounce the UN for its hypocritical “International Day of Solidarity With the Palestinian People”, which glosses over the fact that on 27 November 1947, the UN gave the green light for Zionist colonialism through the Partition Plan. Instead, through a message relayed by the Palestinian Ambassador to the UN Riyad Mansour, Abbas lauded the UN and international complicity over the Palestinian right to anti-colonial resistance and the liberation of their land. 

Abbas’s message, posted in full on Wafa, commences erroneously: “to reaffirm the global commitment to solidarity with the Palestinian people and their inalienable rights, including their right to self-determination, freedom and independence.” The UN supported colonialism in Palestine and stayed silent on Israel’s genocide in Gaza for two years. Where is the commitment to Palestinians and their rights? 

The speech goes from bad to worse, with endorsement of the US plan for Gaza “stressing the necessity of a full Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip,” when Israel has actually established a military occupation over 53 per cent of Gaza. 

“We affirm here that Gaza is an integral part of the State of Palestine, and that its unity with the West Bank and East Jerusalem is an absolute and non-negotiable right.” More than half of Gaza is under Israeli military occupation, Gaza is under US rule for Israel’s benefit by way of UNSC Resolution 2803, and yet Abbas is speaking of territorial integrity in terms of a hypothetical Palestinian state. This despite the fact that Abbas’s statement does not value territorial integrity. The slivers of land for Palestinian state-building have no contiguity, and mentioning the internationally-accepted fragments of land for a Palestinian state only reinforces the colonialism endorsed in the 1947 Partition Plan. 

It is absurd that while even mainstream media outlets are criticising the UNSC resolution, the PA is fully engaged in a collaborative process with parties that will ultimately maintain Israel’s impunity for genocide. Several justifications for genocide were parroted in mainstream media, but the false premise of the UNSC resolution has not escaped scrutiny. While a collective media clamour against genocide would have been more effective in bringing out the criticism of the resolution, the PA’s exploitation of the genocide and its blind adherence to the US plan for Gaza speaks volumes about the treachery it is willing to inflict upon the Palestinian people. 

On the fabricated International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, Mahmoud Abbas should not have stated that “The path to freedom is closer than ever.” Or told the Palestinian people that “Your steadfastness and adherence to your inalienable rights are the foundation for the continuation of your just cause.” The PA has long lost the right to speak for Palestinians, especially when on the occasion of legitimising colonialism through partition, the PA opted to uphold the UN’s euphemism and further reasserted its willingness to engage in Israel’s colonial expansion through the US plan for Gaza. The PA can present itself at the UN, but it can never uphold the Palestinian people’s anti-colonial struggle for liberation.