BICOM

The Palestinian team responsible for preparing the United Nations initiative in September has been given an independent legal opinion by a British expert in international law that warns of the risks involved with its plan to join the UN. According to a seven-page legal opinion by Guy Goodwin-Gill, a professor of international law at Oxford, an initiative to transfer the Palestinians’ representation from the PLO to a state will terminate the legal status held by the PLO in the UN since 1975, which is currently recognised as “the sole and legitimate” representative of the Palestinian people. Furthermore, there will no longer be an institution that can represent Palestinian refugees who live in the diaspora and could be “accidentally disenfranchised” by the UN bid, according to the brief.

Goodwin-Gill’s legal opinion was commissioned by Karma Nabulsi, a former PLO representative and now an Oxford professor. He stated that his opinion is intended to “identify problems potentially affecting the right of Palestinian people to self-determination… [and] to flag matters requiring attention.” The document has now been submitted to Palestinian officials leading the UN bid, which have acknowledged receipt but made no public comment. The Palestinian team, headed by Saeb Erekat, has been preparing an initiative to replace the PLO at the UN, substituting it with the State of Palestine as the representative of the Palestinian people.