Arab League Joins PA to Stop Israel From Getting Security Council Seat

YERUSHALAYIM

The Arab League and the Palestinians will join together to try to block Israel’s candidacy for a seat on the United Nations Security Council, a Palestinian official said.

Israel has made public its intention to try to obtain one of two temporary spots allocated to the Western European and Other Group (WEOG), to which it was admitted in 2000. Israel has never been on the Security Council.

Palestinian ambassador to Cairo, Jamal al-Shobaki, who represents the PA in the Arab League, said that five Arab bodies would collaborate to keep Israel off the Council, according to The Times of Israel on Sunday.

The members of the stop-Israel group are: the Presidency of the Arab Summit, the Presidency of the Ministerial Council, the Palestinian Authority, the Secretary General of the Arab League and Egypt, which is currently& the only Arab state member on the UNSC.

Shobaki reportedly made the comments on the sidelines of a closed session of the Arab League Council in Cairo.

The bid for a UNSC seat is part of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s initiative to break the automatic anti-Israel majority in the U.N. by enlisting countries in Africa and elsewhere to shift their diplomatic policy toward support for Israel.

In December, during the first-ever visit to Kazakhstan by an incumbent Israeli prime minister, Mr. Netanyahu asked the Muslim country’s leader, President Nursultan Nazarbayev, for his support for Israel’s run for the Council seat.

“My hope is, and I say this to all our friends, that the great partnership that we are building here will also be reflected in international forums like the U.N. That’s beginning to happen. The ship doesn’t move overnight; we understand that it’s a big ship. But it’s going to change, it’s changing already,” Mr. Netanyahu told Nazarbayev.

He added, “Now, if you want a real change in the world, imagine the state of Israel on the Security Council of the United Nations — that’s a change!”

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