The United Nations General Assembly supports Palestinian statehood
U.N. Resolution 67 (III) Against the Palestinian “State of War” and “Saave as a State of Tease”
The renewed push for full Palestinian membership in the U.N. comes as the war in Gaza has put the more than 75-year-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict at center stage. The humanitarian plight of Palestinians in Gaza and the killing of over 34,000 people in the territory have generated outrage from many countries.
The United States would block the move if the Assembly referred the matter back to the Council, according to a spokesman for the U.S. mission.
Israel’s ambassador to the U.N., Gilad Erdan, a sharp critic of the body, said voting for a Palestinian state would be inviting “a state of terror” in its midst and rewarding “terrorists” who killed Jewish civilians with privileges and called member states endorsing it “Jew haters.”
But unlike in the Security Council, there are no vetoes in the General Assembly. The resolution got more than the minimum of 118 votes because of the required two-thirds majority of members voting.
Richard Gowan, a conflict prevention organization expert, said the US is resigned to having another bad day at the U.N. But he added that the resolution “gives the Palestinians a boost without creating a breakdown over whether they are or are not now U.N. members.”
Mr. gabriel. The ambassador gave a picture of the Hamas military leader with the word President written on it and said the member states were the architects of the attacks on Israel.
Before the vote, Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian U.N. ambassador, told the assembly in an emotional speech that “No words can capture what such loss and trauma signifies for Palestinians, their families, communities and for our national as a whole.”
The UN vote reflected the wide global support for Palestine’s full membership in the United Nations, with many countries expressing anger at the rising death toll in Gaza and the possibility of an Israeli offensive in the southern city where 1.3 million Palestinians have sought refuge.
U.S. deputy ambassador Robert Wood said Friday the United States supports Palestinian statehood, but that it will come only from direct negotiations that guarantee Israel’s security and future as a democratic Jewish state and that Palestinians can live in peace in a state of their own.
The first draft would have conferred on Palestine “the rights and privileges necessary to ensure its full and effective participation” in the assembly’s sessions and U.N. conferences “on equal footing with member states.” It didn’t say if Palestine could vote in the general assembly.
Mansour accused Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of preparing “to kill thousands to ensure his political survival” and aiming to destroy the Palestinian people.
The U.N. resolution of a global conflict between China and Russia in the 1990 resolution on Palestinian annexation of the UN resolution
The original draft of the resolution was changed significantly to address concerns not only by the U.S. but also by Russia and China, three Western diplomats said, speaking on condition of anonymity because negotiations were private.
According to the diplomats, Russia and China, which are strong supporters of Palestine’s U.N. membership, were concerned that granting the rights and privileges listed in an annex could set a precedent for other would-be U.N. members — with Russia concerned about Kosovo and China about Taiwan.
The United States is required to cut funding to the UN agencies that give full membership to the Palestinian state, and this can mean a cutoff of voluntary contributions to the UN.
