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Source: http://www.jpost.com/DiplomacyAndPolitics/Article.aspx?id=216356
Putting UN Recognition of a Palestinian State in Perspective
(Jerusalem Post) Herb Keinon - UN General Assembly resolutions are largely political and symbolic. A recognition-of-statehood resolution could call for an advisory opinion by the International Court of Justice, as was done in 2004 when the GA sent the security barrier to The Hague. The ICJ ruled against Israel, but the fence still remains. The Palestinian hope is that UN recognition would give them full rights as a state within the UN system, including the prohibition of the use of force against it. But even the UN recognizes the right of self-defense, which means Israel would have legal rights to respond to attacks coming from Palestinian territory. The UN doesn't create states, it recognizes them. It is a bit ironic that the Arabs, who in 1947 rejected the UN vote in favor of partition and then attacked the fledgling Jewish state, are now looking to that same body as the moral authority for the creation of a Palestinian state.