In its past effort, the PA succeeded in winning status as an independent observer nation in the U.N. General Assembly. It failed to win its bid for membership as a sovereign nation in the United Nations Security Council, where the United States holds a seat as one of the five permanent member nations.
The membership maneuvers are another way of evading the PA’s obligations under the internationally-recognized Oslo Accords it signed in 1993, which include abandoning terror and negotiating core issues with Israel, such as borders. Israel has been the only party to the process held to its obligations by the international community.
Israel is not the only one to notice the PA’s violations, however: U.S. lawmakers have warned that Congress is considering the possibility of cutting off American aid to the Palestinian Authority.
“It is counterproductive and doesn’t move them closer to any final resolution,” U.S. Representative (D-NY) Nita Lowey, a ranking member on the House Appropriations Committee, told a Congressional hearing.