Congressman Urges Palestinian Authority to Drop UN Bid

Joining a growng number of voices across the nation, Congressman Joe Walsh (IL-08) urged the Palestinian Authority to drop its bid for unilateral recognition of Palestinian statehood at the United Nations.

Palestinian Authority Leader Mahmoud Abbas is scheduled to address the United Nations General Assembly on Friday. Walsh has introduced H.Res. 394 to support Israel’s right to annex Judea and Samaria in the event that the Palestinian Authority continues to push for this vote at the United Nations. It has garnered more than 30 co-sponsors.

“Demanding statehood from the United Nations violates every agreement and peace treaty signed by the Palestinian Authority since the Oslo Accords. The Palestinians must return to the negotiating table and work together with Israel toward peace. Attempts like this to cut Israel out of the picture simply re-confirm the Palestinians’ commitment to annihilating Israel,” Walsh says.

As Walsch sees it, a U.N.-recognized Palestinian state could put Israeli citizens under the control of a Palestinian government that has vowed to expel all Jews from its territory, including Jerusalem. Jerusalem and the neighboring territories of Judea and Samaria are the birthplaces of Judaism and Christianity, and Jews and Christians have the God-given right to live there.

“I have introduced this resolution to warn the Palestinians of the consequences they face if they continue to demand statehood from the United Nations,” Walsh says. “If the Palestinians press forward with this effort, it will be viewed as a voluntary withdrawal from the Oslo Accords, and any land given to the Palestinians in that treaty, including Judea and Samaria, will be returned to Israel.”

Congressman Walsh has introduced two other bills in defense of Israel during the 112th Congress. H.R. 1501 will withhold funding from the United Nations until it retracts the Goldstone Report, a 2009 report that accused Israel of war crimes. H.R. 2457, the Palestinian Accountability Act, will withhold funding from the Palestinian Authority until it stops inciting violence against Israel and recognizes Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish State; it will also withhold U.S. funding to the United Nations if that body or any of its entities unilaterally recognize Palestinian statehood.