At
UN
Palestine
Application
Stalled In
Procedures,
Strong 6,
Shaky 3,
Germany
By
Matthew
Russell Lee,
Exclusive
UNITED
NATIONS,
October 7 --
When
Palestine's
application
for UN
membership
was taken up
Friday morning
by the
Security
Council
Committee on
Admission of
New Members,
the press not
only wasn't
allowed in, it
was told it
could not wait
outside the
meeting room
to ask
questions.
Inner
City Press
has
nevertheless
gleaned what
took place
inside
Conference
Room 7.
The "Strong
Six"
supporters of
Palestine's
application --
India, Brazil,
South Africa,
Russia, China
and Lebanon --
urged that
the process
speed up, and
opposed a
series of
procedural
issues and
questions
raised by the
European
members.
The
European
members, the
most
questioning
(or
"obstructionist")
of
which sources
say was
Germany, asked
Security
Council
Affairs a
series of
questions
about
deadlines,
when the
Committee must
report
to the full
Council and to
the General
Assembly.
Since
the
applicable
rules were
written when
the General
Assembly met
only
infrequently,
the process is
out of date.
In any event,
the Council
has dealt
differently
with various
applications
for
membership. As
one of the
"Strong Six"
put it to
Inner City
Press, the
Europeans
should be not
allowed to
hide behind
procedure. But
for
now they try.
Then there's
the US veto
threat.
Obama and
Merkel, slow
walk on
Palestine
Significantly,
the
sources tell
Inner City
Press, two of
the "Shaking
Three"
-- in this
case, Bosnia
and Nigeria,
as Council
president for
October
-- did not
make
statements.
The other of
the "Shaky"
trio,
Gabon, made a
statement that
did not tip
its hand.
As
the proponents
of Palestine's
membership
interpret it,
the
International
Court of
Justice in
1948 ruled
that only the
small list of
criteria in
the
Charter,
Article 41,
should be
looked at in
connection
with the
application
for
membership.
Therefore,
they say,
there is
little
reason to get
bogged down in
procedure.
Germany,
which
along with the
United States
voted "no" on
Palestinian
membership in
UNESCO in the
run up to the
October 25
full
membership
vote, has said
that it
opposes
Palestine
seeking
membership
other UN
bodies because
their main
application is
in the
Security
Council.
But
now, the
sources say,
Germany is
trying to
stall and
block its
consideration
there. They
speculate
about
historical
motivations of
German policy.
But the
stalling
remains,
behind closed
doors.
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