The Security Council prepares to kick the Palestine can

The UN Security Council will apparently meet tomorrow to discuss the report of the "committee" it created to consider Palestine’s application for UN membership. The notion that some specialized committee is deliberating over the vexed question is  a fiction, of course, since the committee includes all Council members and is therefore the Council itself meeting ...

By , a professor at Indiana University’s Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies.

The UN Security Council will apparently meet tomorrow to discuss the report of the "committee" it created to consider Palestine's application for UN membership. The notion that some specialized committee is deliberating over the vexed question is  a fiction, of course, since the committee includes all Council members and is therefore the Council itself meeting under a separate name.

The UN Security Council will apparently meet tomorrow to discuss the report of the "committee" it created to consider Palestine’s application for UN membership. The notion that some specialized committee is deliberating over the vexed question is  a fiction, of course, since the committee includes all Council members and is therefore the Council itself meeting under a separate name.

Given that, it’s not surprising therefore that the committee has failed to reach consensus. It has, however, produced a report, which the Council will dutifully discuss. Via Security Council Report’s invaluable What’s in Blue blog:

It seems the report indicates the Committee has concluded its work but was unable to reach a unanimous recommendation on Palestine’s application. Apparently the report also details the exchange of views, without specific attribution, on whether Palestine meets the requirements for membership.

It seems the Committee will approve this report and transmit it to the Council as a public document. It appears unlikely that the Council will take any immediate decisions.

The whip count on the Council appears to be stuck where it has been: with eight of the Council’s fifteen members inclined to support membership. This still puts Palestine one short of the nine votes it needs to force an American veto.

David Bosco is a professor at Indiana University’s Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies. He is the author of The Poseidon Project: The Struggle to Govern the World’s Oceans. Twitter: @multilateralist

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