The United Nations General Assembly adopted by 143 votes in favor to 9 against (Argentina, Czech Republic, Hungary, Israel, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, Papua New Guinea and the United States) and 25 abstentions a resolution [1], calling on the Security Council to revise its position on the full membership of Palestine.

The resolution provides for the following additional rights: the right to sit among the Member States in alphabetical order; the right to table proposals and amendments, to submit and to co-author them; the right to raise points of order; and the right of reply to the proposals made by a group. However, Palestine still does not have the right to vote in the General Assembly nor the right to present its candidature to UN bodies.

The permanent representative of Israel declared that voting for this text amounts to promoting the creation of a terrorist state “led by the Hitler of our time”. In his eyes, this “destructive vote” ushers in the “collaborators of the Israeli babies burned on October 7.” This “unforgivable act” signifies the destruction of the United Nations Charter. Putting his words into action, he reached for a mini document shredder and symbolically reduced the UN founding treaty to confetti.

The Russian Federation, supportive of the text, denounced the United States delegation’s veto against the draft resolution submitted to the Security Council on April 18 in favor of Palestine’s admission as a full UN Member. Russia stressed that the United States is behaving like "the policeman of the world."

The United States justified its rejection of the present text on the grounds that “unilateral measures at the UN and on the ground would not advance the goal of a two-state solution." However, they assured that this negative vote does not reflect their position regarding a Palestinian state, the establishment of which they approve of.

The Islamic Republic of Iran has ruled that Israel has not demonstrated that it deserves its status as a member state, given the “genocide” it is carrying out in Gaza. It also noted that today’s vote points to "the isolation of the United States."

The Syrian Arab Republic denounced the “spectacle” that Israel made of itself during the proceedings.

Germany, Austria, Bulgaria, Latvia, Finland, Italy, Romania, the United Kingdom and Switzerland explained their abstention by considering the admission of Palestine as a Member State to be premature.

France has declared itself resolutely in favor of the admission of the State of Palestine as a new member of the UN. She also insisted on the urgency for a comprehensive political settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, based on the “two-state solution”.

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[1] “Admission of new Members to the United Nations”, Voltaire Network, 10 May 2024.