Tel Aviv threatens to ‘dissolve PA’ over UN push to end occupation

The Cradle, September 9, 2024 — 

The Palestinian Authority submitted a draft resolution to the UN General Assembly demanding that Israel withdraw its military from the West Bank and dismantle Jewish settlements.

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz has threatened to “break and dissolve” the Palestinian Authority (PA) if it moves forward with non-violent diplomatic measures at the UN to end Israel’s occupation of Palestine, the Times of Israel reported on 9 September.

Katz made the threat after the PA submitted a draft resolution to the UN General Assembly demanding that Israel be forced to implement the decisions of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague.

The General Assembly will vote next week on the draft resolution, which calls for an Israeli withdrawal from the occupied Palestinian territories within six months, dismantling the illegal Jewish settlements, and facilitating the return of Palestinians to their land.

The resolution also calls for imposing sanctions on senior Israeli officials, blocking weapons sales to Israel if they might be used in Palestinian areas, and preventing any more foreign embassies from being established in occupied Jerusalem.

Katz ordered a set of moves to be coordinated with the US and other Israeli allies to oppose the decision, the Foreign Ministry said.

The foreign minister instructed Israeli diplomats, including Israel’s Ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, to emphasize to US, European, and UN officials that if the Palestinian proposal passes, Israel will impose “severe sanctions” against the PA, cease all cooperation with it, and bring about its “dissolution.”

In contrast, Israeli intelligence and security officials have often warned against the collapse of the PA, which they view as helpful in controlling the Palestinian population on Israel’s behalf and preventing resistance to occupation.

In July, the ICJ ruled that Israel’s policy of settlement in the West Bank violated international law and that Israel had effectively annexed large parts of the West Bank. Israel officially annexed East Jerusalem in the 1980s, in violation of international law.

The ICJ ruling said that all UN member states are obligated not to recognize changes to the status of the territories and that all states are obligated not to aid or assist Israel’s rule of the territories and ensure that any impediment “to the exercise of the Palestinian people of its right to self-determination is brought to an end.”

There is no mechanism to enforce the ICJ ruling or any General Assembly resolution against Israel.

However, The Times of Israel writes that “there is concern” among the Israeli leadership that such decisions in international forums “could snowball and lead to pressure for arms embargoes and the blacklisting of settlements.”

Israel occupied the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and Syrian Golan Heights during its attack on Syria, Jordan, and Egypt in 1967, known as the Six-Day War.

UN Resolution 242 called for the return of territories conquered during the 1967 war based on the “inadmissibility of the conquest of territory in war.”

Instead, Israel placed these territories under military occupation and commenced the settlement project, which involved seizing Palestinian land to build communities for Jewish settlers and annexing the territories without incorporating the indigenous Palestinian population into the state.