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Status of Palestine in the ITU fires up at Plenipotentiary ConferenceThe Conference decided tonight to give Palestine an enhanced status in the ITU through the application of the International Telecommunication Regulations and Radio Regulations to the Palestinian Authority in the same manner as they are applied to administrations as defined in the Constitution. In particular, the Palestinian Authority will be able to obtain an international access code and call signs and will be able to submit its frequency notification assignments. Palestine will also have additional rights to those granted to observers. Framing the issues The 18 sponsors of the proposal considered that the fulfillment of the basic purposes of the ITU as embodied in the Constitution and of the strengthening of peace and security were closely related to the universality of the Union. They recalled that Palestine had been part of the Union for many decades through countries having administrative authority over its territory and that many countries considered the Palestinian Authority as the de facto Government of the Palestinian State. In response, Israel recalled that the Wye River Memorandum, signed by Israel and the Palestinians on 23 October, deepened the commitment of the two parties to the peace process and opened new prospects for Israeli-Palestinian dialogue. They felt that the proposal to admit Palestine as a Member State was in violation of the ITU Constitution which permits only sovereign states to apply for membership. They argued that the current status of the Palestinian Authority, as mutually agreed by Israel and the Palestinians in the Interim agreement of 1995, ruled out any form of "State" status pending permanent status negotiations and hence precluded the admission process. For these reasons, Israel opposed any change in the status of Palestine. In addition to membership, three requests were made in a separate
proposal, reiterating those made in March 1998 at the ITU World
Telecommunication Development Conference. These were that These requests were following up on Resolution 4 of the ITU Regional Telecommunication Development Conference held in Beirut in 1996 which requested ITU to consider the above three requests and give consideration to the issue of membership. On the international code, Israel considered that under the Interim Agreement, the operation of a Palestinian international gateway and international code were a matter to be agreed by the two parties and that until then, international communications were to be undertaken through Israeli operators. Putting this issue before the Conference was considered as politically motivated, lacking genuine technical or otherwise objective justification. On the other hand, the Palestinians said that Israel collected more than 50% of the revenue from their outgoing international calls and deprived them totally of the revenue from their incoming international calls. Moreover, although the mobile telephone and wireless telephone services had been used for a number of years in Palestinian territories, the Palestinian authorities gained no revenue as a result. He also said that while Israel has 2.7 million telephone lines, Palestinian territories are have only 100 000 lines for 3 million inhabitants as a result of its practices. On frequency assignment, Israel said that the interim agreement provided that the exercise of authority in this area was vested with the Government of Israel and that any outside intervention would be self-defeating. On call-signs, Israel stated that they were not specifically covered by the Interim agreement nor formally raised by the two parties to the Agreement. Israel opposed the treatment of this issue by the ITU as the ITU was not authorized to assign radio call sign to the areas in question until such time as the matter was resolved bilaterally between Israel and the Palestinians. Information consultations to seek acceptable compromise According to the three-point proposal: 2. Palestine would be able to participate in all ITU conferences, assemblies and meetings as an observer, with the rights that are attributed to an observer as defined in the Convention and in treaty making conferences with the following additional rights:
3. Palestinian delegations would be seated immediately after Member States. In response to this proposal, Israel stated that it opposed the positions raised either by formally according to the Palestinian Authority the attributes of an administration or by informally applying these attributes to it because in both cases they were an alteration in or enhancement of the status of the Palestinian side. It considered that in both cases, any such change was in violation of the ITU Constitution which was binding on all Member States, and of the Interim agreement of 1995 and the Wye River Memorandum which were binding on both Parties and had to be respected by the international community as they created the law governing the relations between both parties. It also explained its opposition in relation to the legal instruments of the ITU. Issue goes to vote A hail of points of order on procedural matters followed, leading the Chairman of the Conference to make a ruling. He said there was a clear sense in the room that, with the vote on the closing of debate, the vote on the three-point proposal was to proceed, consistent with the legal advice provided by the Secretary-General at the request of the Conference. He also expressed regret that the politics surrounding the issues seemed to be much bigger than the issues themselves. He said he would have wished not to come to that end but, from the consultations he had held ever since he had set up the information consultation process, and despite the many efforts deployed by those directly and indirectly involved in trying to resolve the issue, he had the sense that the matter had to be settled by secret ballot. He concluded that the business of this Conference needed to go forward and therefore called for the vote. 120 countries voted of which 27 abstained. The number of ballots on which to compute the majority was 93, thus bringing the required majority to 47. Fifty-five countries voted in favour of the three-point proposal and 38 voted against. Earlier in the day, the Conference elected the members of the Radio Regulations Board. The results are as follows: Region A - Americas (2 seats) Maximum possible votes per candidate in this ballot:130 Elected Region B - Western Europe (2 seats) Maximum possible votes per candidate in this ballot:130 Elected Unsuccessful candidate Region C - Eastern Europe (2 seats) Maximum possible votes per candidate in this ballot:129 Elected Region D - Africa (3 seats) Maximum possible votes per candidate in this ballot:129 Elected Unsuccessful candidate Region E - Asia and Australasia (3 seats) Maximum possible votes per candidate in this ballot: 132 Elected Unsuccessful candidates The members of the new RRB will take office on 1 February 1999n |
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