Background:
The Palestinian Ambassador to the UN and nephew of the late Yāssir ʿArafāt, Nāṣir al-Qudwa, is also the former Palestinian Foreign Minister and a member of Fataḥ. At an FPA press conference, al-Qudwa is asked to share his expectations of the UN, what they will do in regards to the Palestinian question and what his wishes are. Al-Qudwa says he wants the UN to remain the guardian of the Palestinian people until the achievement of the final peace settlement. In the meanwhile, he wishes that the UN tries to provide assistance to the Palestinian people in their efforts to build the Palestinian state.
Side A:
Al-Qudwa believes that the majority of the American Jewry does support the peace process and supported the Rabin government (led by the fifth Prime Minister of Israel, Yitzhak Rabin) in the past. Most of them are unhappy with Netanyahu, says al-Qudwa. The minority is a vocal one and sometimes a violent one. This is prevalent among militant Islamists but also among militant Jews in the United States, who make a lot of noise to the extent that people think that their size is much larger than it actually is.
Al-Qudwa says he has no regular meetings with the Israeli delegation or even a working relationship at all. They meet from time to time to exchange views on certain issues, but neither side believes there is an opportunity to agree on anything here at the UN. Al-Qudwa says that they just try to civilize the disagreement, but there are basic differences including the Palestinian question.
The Israeli are trying to impose the actual imbalance of powers on the ground according to al-Qudwa, but the debate has become even more heated. When the Israeli Foreign Minister made his statement during a general debate, he referred to Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Al-Qudwa argues that he tried to make clear that the UN does not accept such rhetoric.
