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UN / NABEEL SHAATH
STORY: UN / NABEEL SHAATH
TRT: 3.19
SOURCE: UNTV
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH/ NATS
DATELINE: 21 SEPTEMBER 2011, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
FILE – RECENT, NEW YORK CITY
1. Zoom out, exterior United Nations headquarters
21 SEPTEMBER 2011, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, Shaath at the dais
3. Wide shot, audience
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr. Nabeel A. Shaath, Member of the Palestinian Legislative Council:
“All the time we are discussing end of occupation. All the time we are discussing what has become a slogan, land for peace. There is no peace achieved and the land is vanishing, piece by piece.”
5. Wide shot, audience
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr. Nabeel A. Shaath, Member of the Palestinian Legislative Council:
“That’s precisely why we are heading to the United Nations asking for help. Not as a substitute for negotiations, but to really be able, once the conditions for negotiations are achieved, to be able to go back to negotiations with international support to end the occupation and to create an independent Palestinian State on the ground, not with occupied territory as it would be today, but with free territory as neighbour of the State of Israel, which sits on the other side of 1967 borders.”
7. Med shot, reporter
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr. Nabeel A. Shaath, Member of the Palestinian Legislative Council:
“We seek international support. That is what brought us to the United Nations. We are not seeking to join the Mafia, nor Al-Qaida, nor an NGO. We are seeking the United Nations that Mr. Obama talked about today so eloquently and so grandly. We are seeking its membership
Because that will give us a chance, support our rights to legitimize the borders on which our State would be done.”
9. Med shot, reverse view of the dais
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr. Nabeel A. Shaath, Member of the Palestinian Legislative Council:
“There’s an Arab peace process that is very clear. Once Israel withdraws from the lands it occupied in 1967 and resolves the remaining issues, including refugees, the whole Arab world would recognize it and normalize relations with. This was joined by the OIC, the Islamic Organization, so there are now 57 Arab and Muslim countries ready to recognize Israel, the moment Israel goes back from its occupation of the Palestinian peoples.”
11. Med shot, reporters
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr. Nabeel A. Shaath, Member of the Palestinian Legislative Council:
“Israel is determined to make crimes punishable by the Court and the only issue is that it wants to be unaccountable so that we do not complain about them. This is ridiculous, utterly ridiculous. We are not going to the International Criminal Court to harass Israel, because if we do that harassment once or twice, we lose credibility and they will not even accept any complains from us thereafter. This is a defence mechanism. If Israel is not going to commit crimes against humanity or international law violations, it should have absolutely no reason to fear our membership of the ICC.”
13. Med shot, reporters
14. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr. Nabeel A. Shaath, Member of the Palestinian Legislative Council:
“The United States has a responsibility and Mr. Obama himself has said in the United Nations that next year there would be a Palestinian State sitting here. He had spent a lot of time urging Israel to stop all settlement activities, and then he backed up, for whatever reasons. We cannot back up. He backs up, but we cannot back up.”
15. Various shots, end of meeting
A senior Palestinian official, commenting on the reasons that led the Palestinian Authority to seek membership at the United Nations (UN), said today (21 September) that after years of discussing an end to the Israeli occupation, “there is no peace achieved and the land is vanishing, piece by piece.”
Dr. Nabeel A. Shaath, a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council who served as the Palestinian Authority's first ever foreign minister, said that that was “precisely why we are heading to the United Nations asking for help”, and pointed out that it wasn’t seeking “a substitute for negotiations” but instead “to be able to go back to negotiations with international support to end the occupation and to create an independent Palestinian State on the ground” within the 1967 borders.
Shaath quipped that Palestinians “are not seeking to join the Mafia, nor Al-Qaida, nor an NGO”, but seeking UN membership in order to “legitimize the borders on which our State would be done.”
Responding to repeated Israeli allegations that neighbouring Arab states are seeking to destroy the Jewish State, he said that “once Israel withdraws from the lands it occupied in 1967 and resolves the remaining issues, including refugees, the whole Arab world would recognize it and normalize relations” with them.
Shaath said that Israeli fears that UN membership would give Palestine access to the International Criminal Court (ICC) were “utterly ridiculous” and that “if Israel is not going to commit crimes against humanity or international law violations, it should have absolutely no reason to fear our membership of the ICC.”
The Palestinian official stressed that the United States (US) has a responsibility” and noted that US President Barack Obama said last year in the General Assembly that he hoped this year “there would be a Palestinian State sitting here.”
He added that “for whatever reasons” Obama had “backed up”, but Palestinians “cannot back up.”
The UN currently has 193 Member States, and Palestine has observer status.
According to the provisions of the UN Charter, the Secretary-General is tasked with verifying a letter requesting UN membership, after which he sends it to the Security Council and the General Assembly.
The application is considered by the Council, which decides whether or not to recommend admission to the Assembly, which has to adopt a resolution for the admission of any new Member State.
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