[/caption]
Nearly a month ago, the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) launched its bid for full member status at the United Nations. Alongside its official campaign to gain international support for this bid, a group of Palestinians working in consort with the PLO have been traveling from city to city around the world carrying a blue and white UN member look-a-like chair, with the writing: Palestine’s Right—A Full Membership in the United Nations. Stamped with the Palestinian flag inside the UN logo, this chair is being used a public relations tool to gain attention and support for the PLO’s ambitions to join the 193 members making up the world community of nations.
The PLO’s outreach to the international community comes at a time when western leaders are being compelled to support popular demands for freedom, democracy and human rights. For example, NATO, led by Great Britain and France, took a crucial role in the ouster and then death of former Libyan leader, Muammar Al-Qadhafi. In another example, US president, Barack Obama, recently told Tunisian prime minister, Beji Caed Essebsi, that the US would support Tunisia no matter what government took power after the election. Additionally, the international community has also taken a strong stance against the Syrian and Yemeni governments, the former of which is responsible for the death of over 3,000 civilians.
In an attempt to capitalize on what appears to be an abundance of goodwill towards the Arab world, the UN Palestine chair has suddenly appeared in Tunisia, just one day ahead of the country’s first election since the ouster of dictator Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali.
The message? Palestine extends its support to the people of Tunisia who will go to the polls on Sunday to elect a 217-member constituent assembly that will re-write the country’s constitution. Credited for igniting the popular uprisings that are now sweeping the region, Tunisians will be reminded of those still struggling along the same path that Tunisia has trod. “May we all unite to uphold the rights of all people to be free. May we all have the courage to uphold mankind’s most scared aspirations,” a sign next to the chair reads.
The unveiling of the chair took place during the visit of an official Palestinian delegation, which included members of the Palestinian legislative council and the Palestinian ambassador to Tunisia, as well as embassy staff.
An outsider’s initial reaction to the presence of the chair in the halls of the Tunisian electoral commission’s (ISIE) media center may be one of puzzlement, such as that illustrated by the former president of Peru, Alejandro Toledo, who questioned upon seeing the chair, “Are we in Palestine or in Tunisia?” The preponderance of traditional Palestinian scarves adorning many of the ISIE commissioners could have fooled anyone into thinking that they must have been in Palestine.
The real reason behind the appearance of the UN Palestine chair is that Tunisians hold a deep affinity with Palestinians. This somewhat surprising fact becomes apparent the moment one arrives to the country. Any reference of Palestine or the Palestinians to a Tunisian, he or she immediately tells you about that time in 1965 when Tunisian president, Habib Bourguiba, defied mainstream Arab discourse, dominated by Egyptian president, Gamel Abdel Nasser, by suggesting that the Palestinians accept the partition of Palestine as laid out by the UN in 1948. “It is because the Egyptians did not take Bourguiba’s advice that the Palestinians are in the situation that they are in today,” one young woman explained to me.
In a meeting with the deputy Palestinian ambassador to Tunisia, he said that there was only one time when the two nations had a falling out. In 1985, the Israeli military bombed PLO Headquarters in downtown Tunis, killing around 60 PLO members, some 15 Tunisians, and wounding around 100 more. President Bourguiba expected PLO chairman, Yasser Arafat, to send his condolences to the president for instigating an Israeli attack on Tunisian soil that injured and killed Tunisian civilians. He did not. According to the deputy ambassador, Chairman Arafat said in response to Bourguiba’s hurt feelings that he was waiting for the president to send his condolences, because the Israeli military tried to assassinate him, and killed over 50 of his men in the process.
So, what might have been considered an imposition in any other country is here considered an opportunity to express mutual respect and unity in hope and aspiration. It’s a way of saying: We know that you are with us; we want you to know that we are with you.
In a rather touching statement reflecting the closeness between Palestinians and Tunisians, ISIE vice president, Souad Triki, told the Palestinian delegation: “It is a great honor for ISIE to host this symbolic gesture of Palestine’s UN chair as Tunisia celebrates its freedom and remembers those who are still fighting for theirs,” the commissioner said. “Palestinians and Tunisians have always had a truly special relationship. I hope that after the revolution this relationship will only get stronger.”
