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The UN General Assembly voted overwhelmingly to support Palestine’s bid for full UN membership, in a move that signals Israel’s growing isolation on the world stage amid global concern over the war in Gaza and the extent of the humanitarian crisis in the Strip.
The Assembly voted 143 to 9 with 25 abstentions for a resolution calling on the UN Security Council to grant full membership to the State of Palestine, while strengthening its current mandate with a set of new rights and privileges, in addition to what is permitted in your current observer status.
The highly charged gesture drew immediate rebuke from Israel. Her UN envoy, Gilad Erdan, strongly condemned the resolution and its supporters ahead of the vote.
“I’m going to hold up a mirror to you today,” Erdan said, taking out the small paper shredder in which he was cutting a small copy of the cover of the UN charter. He told the assembly: “You are shredding the UN Charter with your own hands. Yes, yes, that’s what you do. Shredding of the UN Charter. Shame on you.”
Palestinian envoy Riyad Mansour said the vote comes as Rafah, the southernmost city of last refuge for many Gazans, faces an assault by Israeli forces.
“As we speak, 1.4 million Palestinians in Rafah are wondering if they will survive the day and wondering where to go. We have nowhere to go,” Mansoor said. “I have stood at this podium hundreds of times before, often under tragic circumstances, but none can compare to what my people have experienced today…never for a more significant vote than the one about to take place, historical”.
Friday’s resolution was carefully crafted over the past few days, watering down its language so as not to trigger a freeze on US funding under a 1990 law. It does not make Palestine a full member, nor does it give it voting rights in the assembly, nor the right to ran for membership in the Security Council, but the vote was a stark expression of world opinion in favor of Palestinian statehood, fueled by the ongoing bloodshed and starvation caused by Israel’s war on Gaza.
Even before the parliamentary vote on Friday morning, Israel and a group of leading Republicans called for US funding to end anyway because of the new privileges granted by the resolution to the Palestinian mission.
The US mission to the UN, which voted against the resolution, warned it would also use its veto again if the issue of Palestinian membership returned to the Security Council for another vote.
“Efforts to advance this resolution do not change the reality that the Palestinian Authority currently does not meet the criteria for UN membership under the UN Charter,” mission spokesman Nathan Evans said. “Furthermore, the draft resolution does not change the status of the Palestinians as a ‘non-member state observer mission.’
The other countries that voted against the resolution were Argentina, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Israel, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau and Papua New Guinea. The United Kingdom abstained.
Under the resolution, the Palestinian mission will now be allowed to sit in the General Assembly among other countries in alphabetical order, rather than in its current observer seat at the back of the chamber. Palestinian diplomats will have the right to move motions and amendments, they can be elected to official positions in the full house and on committees, and they will have the right to speak on Middle East issues, as well as the right to make statements on behalf of groups of nations in the assembly.
But the resolution also made clear that “the State of Palestine, in its capacity as an observer State, shall not have the right to vote in the General Assembly or to put forward its candidacy for The United Nations organs.”
Richard Gowan, UN director at the International Crisis Group, said: “Essentially, this gives the Palestinians the airs and graces of a UN member, but without the essential attributes of a real member, which are the right to vote and the right to run for the Security Council .”
The General Assembly resolution was drafted so as not to meet the criteria set out in a 1990 US law that prohibits funding to the UN or any UN agency “that gives the Palestine Liberation Organization the same status as of the Member States’.
The main faction in the PLO, Fatah, now controls the Palestinian Authority, which the Biden administration is backing to take over Gaza after the war ends.
Despite wording in the resolution that makes clear Palestine will not have a vote, Israel has called on the US to cut UN funding because of the resolution, and a group of Republican senators has announced they are introducing legislation to do so.
“The United States should not trust an organization that actively encourages and rewards terrorism. By granting any UN status to the Palestine Liberation Organization, we would do just that,” Sen. Mitt Romney said in a written statement. “Our legislation will stop US taxpayer funding of the United Nations if it gives additional rights and privileges to the Palestinian Authority and the PLO.”
On Thursday evening, Israel’s security cabinet approved a “measured expansion” of Israeli forces’ operation in Rafah after the breakdown of ceasefire talks in Cairo. The US strongly opposes the Rafah offensive and has halted the delivery of a shipment of US bombs, and Joe Biden has threatened further restrictions on arms supplies if Israel goes ahead with the attack.
Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, vowed to counter US objections, saying Israel would fight “with its claws” if necessary. On Monday, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) took control of the Palestinian side of the Rafah border crossing after ordering civilians in the eastern part of the city of Rafah to evacuate. Since then, more than 110,000 people have left the area. On Friday, the UN reported intense clashes between IS and Palestinian militants on the eastern outskirts of the city. The fighting has cut off aid supplies to Gaza at a time of spreading famine.
Jan Egeland, head of the Norwegian Refugee Council, said on social media site X that he was told by NRC officials in Rafah that “the IDF attack is intensifying with continuous, massive explosions. There is no fuel, transportation or safe evacuation zones for most of the remaining 1.2 million civilians.
“A massive ground attack in Rafah will lead to [an] an epic humanitarian disaster and will halt our efforts to support people as famine looms,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned during a visit to Nairobi, adding that the situation in the southern city of Gaza was “on a knife’s edge”.
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