The Palestinian Authority has filed official requests this past week to join eight international treaties, including the U.N.’s International Convention against Apartheid in Sports and the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty according to a report in Israel’s Hadashot news.
Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon said the latest attempt by the P.A. to raise its status within the international community and delegitimize Israel is a campaign to “establish facts on the ground by making detours and unilateral moves.”
In April 2014, the P.A. applied for membership to 15 international treaties, including the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, the Fourth Geneva Convention and the U.N. Convention Against Corruption. Then U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon accepted the Palestinians entry into 10 of the treaties as non-state members. P.A. leader Mahmoud Abbas has vowed to apply to 22 international treaties, including 18 of the United Nations in December 2017, following the official recognition by U.S. President Donald Trump of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
The most recent applications were reported just a day after the U.N. Human Rights Council adopted a slew of five resolutions in condemnation of Israel, including one which called on Israel to give the strategic Golan Heights to civil war-torn Syria. All of the resolutions were presented under “Agenda Item 7” by member countries of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.
Israel is the only country that has a permanently dedicated agenda item at the council.
