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UNGA votes in favor of Palestine's full membership
The U.N. General Assembly approved a vote on Palestine's bid to become a full member of the global body, recommending the Security Council to...
The United Nations General Assembly votes on a Palestinian bid to become a full UN member, which ultimately passed, at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, New York, May 10, 2024. (EPA Photo)
The U.N. General Assembly approved a vote on Palestine's bid to become a full member of the global body, recommending the Security Council to "reconsider the matter favorably."
The vote by the 193-member General Assembly was a global survey of support for the Palestinian bid to become a full U.N. member - a move that would effectively recognize a Palestinian state - after the United States vetoed it in the U.N. Security Council last month.
The assembly adopted a resolution on Friday with 143 votes in favor and nine against - including the U.S. and Israel - while 25 countries abstained. It does not give the Palestinians full U.N. membership, but simply recognizes them as qualified to join.
The General Assembly resolution "determines that the State of Palestine... should therefore be admitted to membership" and it "recommends that the Security Council reconsider the matter favorably."
The Palestinian push for full U.N. membership comes seven months of Israeli massacres and devastation in the Gaza Strip, and as Israel is expanding settlements in the occupied West Bank, which are considered illegal under international law.
"We want peace, we want freedom," Palestinian U.N. Ambassador Riyad Mansour told the General Assembly before the vote. "A yes vote is a vote for Palestinian existence, it is not against any state.... It is an investment in peace."
"Voting yes is the right thing to do," he said in remarks that drew applause.
Under the founding U.N. Charter, membership is open to "peace-loving states" that accept the obligations in that document and are able and willing to carry them out.
Israel's U.N. Ambassador Gilad Erdan, who spoke after Mansour, accused the Assembly of shredding the U.N. Charter - as he used a small shredder to destroy a copy of the Charter while at the lectern.
"Shame on you," Erdan said.
The ambassador said on Monday that, if the measure was approved, he expected the U.S. to cut funding to the United Nations and its institutions, in accordance with American law.
An application to become a full U.N. member first needs to be approved by the 15-member Security Council and then the General Assembly. If the measure is again voted on by the council it is likely to face the same fate: a U.S. veto.
"The council must respond to the will of the international community," United Arab Emirates U.N. Ambassador Mohamed Abushahab told the assembly before the vote.
The General Assembly resolution adopted on Friday does give the Palestinians some additional rights and privileges from September 2024 - like a seat among the U.N. members in the assembly hall - but they will not be granted a vote in the body.
The Palestinians are currently a non-member observer state, a de facto recognition of statehood that was granted by the U.N. General Assembly in 2012.
