The steps taken by Mahmoud Abbas for Palestine to join 15 UN bodies has elicted reactions from several members of the US Congress and, of particular note, from the US ambassador to the United Nations, where reason appears to have been dethroned.

Ambassador Samantha Power told a House of Representatives subcommittee on April 2, “The United States will stand with Israel, we will defend it, and we will challenge every instance of unfair treatment throughout the UN system. … This solemn commitment also extends to a firm opposition to any and all unilateral actions in the international arena, including on Palestinian statehood, that circumvent or prejudge the very outcomes that can only come about through a negotiated settlement.” Is it not possible that they could come through the United Nations if the current Palestinian-Israeli negotiations fail, as they have to this point? Have there been negotiations in a real or legal sense?

Power’s declaration, whose intent is to deny the Palestine Liberation Organization and others their right to access the United Nations as the anchor of international law, is a threat to all UN members who are and have been committed to upholding the rights of the Palestinian people, as they have done for others in the past by acknowledging their liberation movements in their efforts toward independence and statehood.

This preemptive strike was delivered by Power in a newly found threatening tone. Her declaration to “challenge every instance of unfair treatment” raises one question: What is unfair? It is Israel with its ongoing, creeping annexations of Palestinian territories. It is Israel refusing to acknowledge that it is an occupying power. It is Israel on the eve of a visit by Secretary of State John Kerry announcing the building of 700 new housing units in East Jerusalem, greatly reducing the territory of what was intended to be the capital of Palestine should the so-called negotiations of more than 20 years remain under the exclusive management of the United States. Threatening to disallow the Palestinians access to routes to independence outside the context of US sponsorship is mind-boggling.