UN voted overwhelmingly to recognise Palestine as the world's 194th state

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Avaazers, it’s time to celebrate!

A few minutes ago, the UN voted overwhelmingly to recognise Palestine
as the world’s 194th state!!! It’s a huge victory for the Palestinian
people, for peace, for our community, and people across the world are joining
with massive crowds in Palestine to celebrate.

The Palestinian people’s journey to freedom is far from over. But this is a
powerful step, and our community played a key role in it. Palestine’s
Ambassador to Europe said today:

“Avaaz and its members across the world have played a crucial role
in persuading governments to support the Palestinian people’s bid for a state
and for freedom and peace. They have stood with us throughout and their
solidarity and support will be remembered and cherished across Palestine.” -
Leila Shahid, General Palestinian Delegate to Europe

The
US and Israeli governments, beholden to extreme lobby groups (yes, sadly even
Obama has given in), threw everything they had at crushing this vote, using
financial threats and even threatening to overthrow the Palestinian President
if he went ahead. Europe was the key swing vote, and under intense US
pressure, leaders were, just two weeks ago, leaning towards not supporting the
Palestinian state. Knowing the stakes, our community responded with the speed
and democratic force that we needed to win:

One
by one, key European states broke with the US to answer the call of justice and
their peoples. In the final vote tally we got just now, only 9 countries out of
193 have voted against! France, Spain, Italy, Sweden and most of Europe has
voted for Palestine.

The US and Israel argued first that statehood was dangerous for peace, and
then, when they’d lost, that it didn’t matter and the vote was just symbolic.
But if it were just symbolic they wouldn’t have done everything to try and stop
it. And after years of bad-faith negotiations and Israeli comfort with the
status quo as they steadily colonize more Palestinian land, this move shows
the US and Israel that if they do not engage in good faith, the Palestinians
and the world are prepared to move forward without them. It’s a more
balanced basis for real peace talks. And that’s the best alternative to the
kind of violence we saw Israel’s government and Hamas offer in Gaza this month.

For decades the Palestinian people have suffered under a stifling Israeli
military dictatorship, repressive controls on their travel and work, continual
denial of their rights and the constant threat of insecurity and violence. 65
years ago today, the UN recognized the state of Israel, beginning a path to the
establishment of a safe home for the Jewish people. Today the Palestinians
take a step down the same path, and gain a dignity in the eyes of the
international community that they have been denied for a generation. And from
that dignity, we can build the foundations of peace.

With hope and joy,

Ricken, Alice, Ari, Wissam, Allison, Sam, Julien, Pascal, Wen, Pedro,
Saravanan, Emma, Ben, Dalia, Alexey, Paul, Marie, Aldine, Luca, Jamie, Morgan
and the whole Avaaz team.

PS Here are some sources – The Associated
Press covers today’s victory, the Guardian
covers our polling two weeks ago, Avaaz’s Daily Briefing
provides a map of the vote result, and Haaretz
describes Israel’s response.

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2012-11-30 09:01:59

Source: http://nesaranews.blogspot.com/2012/11/un-voted-overwhelmingly-to-recognise.html