Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas delivers a speech at the United Nations General Assembly on September 23, 2022. request.
Julia Nickinson/AP
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Julia Nickinson/AP
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas delivers a speech at the United Nations General Assembly on September 23, 2022. request.
Julia Nickinson/AP
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. General Assembly voted by a wide margin on Friday to grant new “rights and privileges” to Palestine and called on the Security Council to reconsider Palestine’s request to become the U.N.’s 194th member state.
The 193-member world body adopted the Arab-Palestinian-sponsored resolution by 143 votes to 9, with 25 abstentions. The United States, along with Israel, Argentina, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau and Papua New Guinea voted against the resolution.
The vote reflected widespread global support for Palestine to formally join the United Nations, with many countries expressing anger over the rising death toll in Gaza and concerns over a massive Israeli offensive against the southern city of Rafah, a city of about 1.3 million Palestinians have sought asylum in the city.
But while it granted Palestine some new rights and privileges, it reiterated that it remained a non-member observer state without the right to vote in the General Assembly or any of its meetings. The United States has made clear it will block Palestinian membership and statehood until direct negotiations with Israel resolve key issues including security, borders and the future of Jerusalem.
The United States also vetoed a widely supported Security Council resolution on April 18 that would have paved the way for Palestine to become a full member of the United Nations.
The United States supports Palestinian statehood, but that can only be achieved through direct negotiations to ensure the security and future of Israel as a democratic Jewish state in which Palestinians can live peacefully in their own country, Deputy U.S. Ambassador Robert Wood said on Friday.
According to the United Nations Charter, future United Nations member states must be “peace-loving” and the Security Council must submit their recommendations for admission to the General Assembly for final approval. Palestine became a non-member observer state in the United Nations in 2012.
But unlike the Security Council, the General Assembly does not have veto power. The resolution required a two-thirds majority vote of the membership and received well over the minimum vote count of 118 votes.
The resolution “affirms” the Palestinian state’s eligibility for membership – abandoning the original wording of the General Assembly’s determination that Palestine is a “peace-loving country”. It therefore recommended that the Security Council reconsider its request “positively”.
The Gaza war has brought the 75-year-old Palestinian-Israeli conflict into focus amid renewed push for Palestine to formally join the United Nations. The humanitarian crisis facing Palestinians in Gaza and the killing of more than 34,000 people in the area has sparked outrage in many countries, according to Gaza health officials at multiple council and parliament meetings.
Ahead of the vote, Palestinian UN Ambassador Riyad Mansour told the assembly in an emotional speech that “there are no words to describe what this loss and trauma means for Palestinians, their families, their communities and for our entire country.” What are you wearing?
As Israel besieged Rafah, Palestinians in Gaza were “pushed to the edge of the Gaza Strip, to the edge of their lives,” he said.
Mansour accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of being prepared to “kill thousands of people to ensure his political survival” and aiming to destroy the Palestinian people.
Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan, strongly opposed the resolution, accusing U.N. member states of failing to mention the October 7 attack by Hamas in southern Israel that killed 1,200 people and of seeking to “reward modern Nazis.” rights and privileges”.
He said that if elections were held today, Hamas would win and warned UN member states that they were “on the verge of granting privileges and rights to Hamas as a future terror state”. Holding up a photo of Yahya Sinwar, the mastermind of Hamas attacks on Israel, he said a terrorist “whose stated goal is the genocide of the Jewish people” would be the future Palestinian leader.
Erdan also accused the General Assembly of violating the United Nations Charter.
Three Western diplomats said the original draft of the resolution was significantly revised to address not only U.S. concerns but those of Russia and China.
The first draft would give Palestine the rights and privileges needed “to ensure its full and effective participation on an equal basis with member states” in General Assembly meetings and UN meetings. It also makes no mention of whether Palestine will be able to vote in the General Assembly.
Russia and China, staunch supporters of Palestine joining the United Nations, are concerned that granting the rights and privileges listed in the annex could set a precedent for other potential U.N. members — Russia worries about Kosovo and China worries about Palestine, according to diplomats .
Under long-standing legislation in the U.S. Congress, the United States must cut off funding to U.N. agencies that grant full membership to the Palestinian state, which could mean cutting off dues and voluntary contributions to the U.N. from its largest donor.
The final draft removed language that put Palestine “on equal footing with member states.” To address the concerns of China and Russia, it decided to adopt the rights and privileges in the annex “on an exceptional basis and without setting a precedent”.
The resolution passed by the General Assembly also added a provision to the annex clarifying that Palestine was not given the right to vote in the General Assembly.
What the resolution gives Palestine is the right to speak on all issues, not just those related to Palestinians and the Middle East, to propose agenda items and respond in debates, and to serve on the main committees of the General Assembly. It also allows Palestinians to participate in the United Nations and international meetings convened by the United Nations without voting rights.
Palestinian President Abbas first submitted an application to the Palestinian Authority to join the United Nations in 2011, but the application failed because the Palestinians did not receive the minimum support required by nine of the 15 members of the Security Council.
They participated in the United Nations General Assembly and succeeded with a two-thirds majority to upgrade their status from United Nations observer to non-member observer state. This opens the door for the Palestinian territories to join the United Nations and other international organizations, including the International Criminal Court.
In an April 18 Security Council vote, the Palestinians received increased support for U.N. membership. The vote was 12 in favor, with Britain and Switzerland abstaining and the United States voting against and vetoing the resolution.
