If the UN grants Palestine ‘statehood’, the US could stop funding the UN

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By Eugene Kontorovich

The United Nations may be about to grant a diplomatic gift to the Palestinian Authority – which supported the Hamas massacre on October 7 – by granting it the “rights and privileges” of member states in UN forums. ‘UN.

In other words, make “Palestine” a member of the UN in all but name.

This would be a moral travesty of the kind that characterizes Turtle Bay, and it could only happen with the acquiescence of the Biden administration.

But there is a silver lining: This action provides the legal basis for a president — a future President Donald Trump, for example — to finally end all U.S. funding to the world body.

The PLO, the terrorist organization whose leader Mahmoud Abbas heads the Palestinian Authority, has long sought to establish international recognition of a “State of Palestine” to avoid having to negotiate with Israel and make concessions to it. .

The objective is to create a diplomatic system accomplished fact — “aerial facts” to complement the facts he is trying to create on the ground through terror and illegal construction.

The United Nations has always been the most fertile ground for the Palestinian Authority’s “internationalization” campaign, given the UN’s pathological and long-standing bias toward Israel.

That’s why Congress passed two laws in the early 1990s banning any funding from the United Nations or its affiliated agencies if they grant the PA member state status.

The United States is by far the UN’s largest contributor, paying a third of the budget, a whopping $18 billion, not counting the massive value of its free real estate in Midtown.

The least American taxpayers should get in return is to prevent UN thugs and dictators from ceding the privileges of UN membership to a terrorist entity that does not even meet the criteria for statehood .

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UNESCO, a United Nations agency, made the mistake of granting the Palestinians “member state” status in 2011; since then, Palestinians have hijacked UNESCO’s agenda to pass resolutions denying the Jewish connection to biblical sites like Jerusalem, Jericho and Hebron.

President Barack Obama was forced to suspend US funding to UNESCO due to current laws.

The Palestinian Authority now sets its sights on a bigger prize: the privileges of membership in the UN’s principal organ, the General Assembly, and all its associated organs and committees.

Yet under the UN Charter, the Security Council must authorize any new UN member state, and it vetoed the Palestinian Authority’s candidacy again just weeks ago.

Knowing that it automatically enjoys the support of the undemocratic majority in the General Assembly, the PA proposed a final solution: a resolution that gives it privileges “on an equal footing with member states.”

Even this bureaucratic sleight of hand could trigger America’s defunding law. So, this week, the PA presented a new plan: instead of saying that the “State of Palestine” will have the privileges of member states, it simply lists the privileges that come with membership and grants them all to the AP.

This is a transparent attempt to conceal the practical effect of the resolution in order to avoid the loss of US funding.

Congress intended such tricks: the statutory criteria for defunding specifically uses the words “same status” as a member state, rather than actual membership, thus giving the Palestinian Authority the general benefits of membership without the Calling for membership should be enough to end the funding.

But if the resolution passes, it means the Biden administration has indicated it would go along with the ruse and not issue reimbursements, even if the law allowed it.

This would mean that Biden would rather help the PA win diplomatic battles, even as the Jewish state fights for its existence, than enforce US law.

The president set the stage for this move last year by persuading Congress to temporarily forego defunding UNESCO on the condition that the Palestinian Authority cease its pursuit of statehood within the world body.

The AP took this as an invitation to try harder. At the very least, an affirmative vote this week will give Congress every reason not to renew the UNESCO waiver when it expires next year.

And if the PA’s new gamble succeeds, it will present any future president with an extraordinary opportunity.

The UN is a corrupt and bankrupt organization, fundamentally tainted by its cuddly dictatorships and chronic anti-Semitism, but broad efforts to defund it have failed in Congress; now, the future White House would have good reasons to stop sending checks.

Perhaps the UN apparatchiks are convinced that Biden will be re-elected. But are they really ready to bet the farm for this despicable terrorist regime?

Eugene Kontorovich is a professor at GMU Scalia Law School and a researcher at the Kohelet Policy Forum.