{"id":27607,"date":"2024-05-24T03:36:14","date_gmt":"2024-05-24T08:36:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=27607"},"modified":"2024-05-24T03:36:20","modified_gmt":"2024-05-24T08:36:20","slug":"un-member-nations-vote-overwhelmingly-to-back-palestinian-membership-bid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=27607","title":{"rendered":"UN member nations vote overwhelmingly to back Palestinian membership bid"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A United Nations<\/u><\/a> resolution in support of Palestinian membership passed with overwhelming support on Friday, and granted new privileges to the Palestinian Authority in its current capacity as a non-member observer state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The resolution won a resounding majority of 143 votes in favor. Twenty five abstained, and nine nations voted against the text: Czechia, Hungary, Argentina, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Israel and the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The text, put forward by the United Arab Emirates, calls for the UN\u2019s powerful Security Council \u2013 which must rule on Palestinian membership \u2013 to \u201creconsider the matter favourably.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe State of Palestine is qualified for membership in the United Nations,\u201d it asserts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With emotion running high on Friday, more than 100 national representatives asked to speak about the resolution, with most emphasizing strong support for Palestinian statehood no matter how they voted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In remarks before the vote, Palestinian ambassador Riyad Mansour spoke passionately about the plight of Palestinians in wartorn Gaza. \u201cAs we speak, 1.4 million Palestinians in Rafah wonder if they will survive today,\u201d he told the assembly, referring to Israeli threats of a major attack on the densely populated city in southern Gaza.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also thanked protesters on US university campuses and abroad who have demonstrated against the Israel-Hamas war. \u201cOur flag flies high and proud in Palestine and across the globe, and on the campus of Columbia University. It has become a symbol by all those who believe in freedom and is just ruled by all those who can no longer stand idly by in the face of such utter injustice,\u201d Mansour said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Israel foreign minister Israel Katz quickly condemned the resolution\u2019s passage, describing it as a an \u201cabsurd decision\u201d that highlights \u201cthe structural bias of the UN\u201d and rewards the actions of Hamas on October 7.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe message that the UN is sending to our suffering region: violence pays off,\u201d he said. \u201cThe decision to upgrade the status of Palestinians in the UN is a prize for Hamas terrorists after they committed the largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While a General Assembly vote cannot confer UN membership, the approved resolution does endow the Palestinian Authority with new procedural rights and privileges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Only member states can vote, but the Palestinian Authority can now be seated among member states in alphabetical order; submit and introduce proposals and amendments; and co-sponsor proposals and amendments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It can also make statements and explanations of votes, and has the right to reply on behalf of a group within the UN. It can also request proposals to be put to a vote and request items to be put on the UNGA\u2019s provisional agenda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Palestinian Authority will now request full membership from the Security Council, according to Mansour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The US has already warned that it will likely veto such a request in the Security Council \u2013 a replay of its April veto of an earlier Palestinian membership request.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following the general assembly vote on Friday, US Deputy Ambassador to the United Nations Robert Wood described the resolution text as \u201cunproductive,\u201d saying a \u201cdurable peace\u201d in the Middle East would mean bundling the two-state solution with other elements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGaza cannot be a platform for terrorism, that there should be no Israeli reoccupation of Gaza and that the size of Gaza\u2019s territory should not be reduced,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wood also suggested that the United Nations was the wrong forum for consideration of Palestinian statehood, telling the General Assembly that \u201cit remains the US view that the most expeditious path toward statehood and UN membership for the Palestinian people is through direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian authority.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Israel\u2019s ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan also made emotional remarks before the assembly before the vote, accusing resolution supporters of voting to \u201cadvance the establishment of a Palestinian terror state\u201d and shredding part of the UN charter while standing at the organization\u2019s storied rostrum in New York<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is your mirror so that you can see exactly what you are inflicting upon the UN charter with this destructive vote,\u201d Erdan said, holding up a small paper shredder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hours later, UN spokesman Farhan Haq defended the charter, telling press that \u201cthis is an organization that is premised on respect for the UN charter and all of the member states have pledged to uphold the UN charter and we expect them to fulfill that obligation\u201d, said the spokesman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs long as this organization exists, the charter exists,\u201d Haq added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In September 2011, the Palestinian Authority failed to win UN\u2002<\/u><\/a>recognition as an independent member state. A year later, the UN decided that the Palestinian Authority\u2019s \u201cnon-member observer entity\u201d status would be changed to \u201cnon-member observer state,\u201d similar to the Vatican.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A United Nations resolution in support of Palestinian membership passed with overwhelming support on Friday, and granted new privileges to the Palestinian Authority in its current capacity as a non-member observer state. The resolution won a resounding majority of 143 votes in favor. Twenty five abstained, and nine nations voted against the text: Czechia, Hungary, Argentina, Micronesia, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":27608,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[24141,28571,2555,2140,1712,3174],"class_list":["post-27607","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-join","tag-member-nations","tag-palestine","tag-support","tag-un","tag-vote"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27607","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27607"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27607\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27609,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27607\/revisions\/27609"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/27608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}