France To Support Palestinian U.N. bid
With latke season nearing, some may eschew freedom fries
November 27, 2012
United Nations(UN)
France24 is reporting that France will support the Palestinian bid for a status upgrade at the United Nations on Thursday. The initiative would grant Palestinians “non-member observer state” status at the United Nations.
France said on Tuesday it would vote in favour of Palestinian “non-member observer” status at the United Nations, boosting Palestinian efforts to secure greater international recognition.
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told the country’s National Assembly that Paris would vote “yes” in this week’s vote on a call for “non-member observer state status” for the Palestinians. Even with non-member status, however, a Palestinian state would still not be a full member of the UN General Assembly.
As some have noted, this move, if successful, could help bolster the standing of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, whose stock has been flagging in the wake of Operation Pillar of Defense. Others don’t seem to care about that and aren’t fond of the idea at all.
With the debate on the Palestinian initiative heating up, we’ll have more coverage ahead of Thursday.
Adam Chandler was previously a staff writer at Tablet. His work has appeared in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Atlantic, Slate, Esquire, New York, and elsewhere. He tweets @allmychandler.
