The United Nations, UN General Assembly Friday voted by a wide margin to back a Palestinian bid to become a full UN member.
The assembly also called on the UN Security Council to favourably reconsider the request to have a Palestinian state become the 194th member of the United Nations.
The vote by the 193-member General Assembly was a global survey of support for the Palestinian bid to become a full UN member – a move that would effectively recognise a Palestinian state – after the United States vetoed it in the UN Security Council last month.
The assembly adopted a resolution on Friday with 143 votes in favour and nine against – including the US and Israel – while 25 countries abstained. Nigeria and all other African countries voted for it except Malawi which abstained.
In December, Malawi also abstained from a vote calling for a cease-fire in Gaza.
Most African countries and the African Union have always supported the Palestinian cause and backed a two-state solution to resolve the Israel-Palestine conflict.
Several countries that voted for Palestine’s admission believed their vote counted for the protection of civilians, especially women and children, and for upholding legal and humanitarian obligations in Gaza.
Friday’s vote does not give Palestine full UN membership, but recognises it as qualified to join, Al Arabia reports. Palestine still needs the UN Security Council to approve its application with the US still expected to veto it when the matter is retaken to the council.
The United States vetoed a widely backed council resolution on 18 April that would have paved the way for full United Nations membership for Palestine, a goal the Palestinians have long sought and Israel has worked to prevent.
The NBC reports that US Deputy Ambassador Robert Wood made it clear that the Biden administration opposed the assembly resolution.
“We’ve been very clear from the beginning there is a process for obtaining full membership in the United Nations, and this effort by some of the Arab countries and the Palestinians is to try to go around that,” Mr Wood said Thursday.
“We have said from the beginning the best way to ensure Palestinian full membership in the UN is to do that through negotiations with Israel. That remains our position.”
Under the UN Charter, prospective members of the United Nations must be “peace-loving,” and the Security Council must recommend their admission to the General Assembly for final approval.
Palestine became a UN non-member observer state in 2012.
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The assembly’s resolution on Friday “determines” that the state of Palestine is qualified for membership — dropping the original language that in the General Assembly’s judgement it is “a peace-loving state.”
It therefore recommends that the Security Council reconsider its request “favourably.”
