On April 18, 2024, the United States overrode a resolution that was overwhelmingly supported by the UN and would have allowed the state of Palestine to become a full member.
The United States voted against it, two members of the 15-member Security Council abstained, and 12 members supported it.
- Advertisement -
It was suggested by the resolution that Palestine be admitted as the 194th member of the United Nations if the 193-member General Assembly approved it without veto power. Palestine’s admittance would have been accepted because it has already been acknowledged by almost 140 nations.
This is the second bid by the Palestinians to join the UN as a full member, and it comes at a time when the almost 75-year-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict has gained prominence due to the ongoing war in Gaza, which is currently in its seventh month.
US Deputy State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel stated before the vote that the US has “been very clear consistently that premature actions in New York — even with the best intentions — will not achieve statehood for the Palestinian people.”
Membership of Palestinians “needs to be the outcome of the negotiation between Israel and the Palestinians,” According to US Deputy Ambassador Robert Wood. He stated this “is something that would flow from the result of those negotiations.”
Anything that gets in the way “makes it more difficult to have those negotiations” as well as hinders the two-state solution that “we all want,” in which Israel and Palestine coexist peacefully, Wood told reporters.
2011 saw the initial delivery of the Palestinian Authority’s application for UN membership by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to then-Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. The original attempt was unsuccessful as the Palestinians were unable to secure the necessary minimum backing from nine out of the fifteen members of the Security Council.
The Palestinians then addressed the General Assembly, where they were successful in November 2012 in moving up from UN observer status to non-member observer state by a majority of more than two-thirds.
The Palestinian territories might now join the UN and other international institutions, such as the International Criminal Court, as a result of this.
With the support of the 140 nations that have acknowledged Palestine as an independent state, the Palestinians relaunched their application to join the UN in early April.
The president of the Palestinian Authority, Ziad Abu Amr, stated that the people of Palestine would have hope if the resolution was passed,” for a decent life within an independent state.”
She remarked, “Hope has dissipated over the past years because of the intransigence of the Israeli government that has rejected this solution publicly and blatantly, especially following the destructive war against the Gaza Strip.”
He made it clear to the Security Council that there would be no substitute, “for serious negotiations that are time-bound to implement the two-state solution” as well as UN resolutions, to settle outstanding disputes between Israelis and Palestinians.
Amr questioned how, given that the US and other nations had previously acknowledged Israel and granted its UN membership, their opposition to it could undermine chances for peace or jeopardize global peace and security.
“To grant the state of Palestine full membership will be an important pillar to achieve peace in our region, because the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and its different dimensions now go beyond the borders of Palestine and Israel and impact other regions in the Middle East and around the world,” The representative for Palestine stated.
Years have passed with little progress in Israeli-Palestinian discussions, and hardliners who reject Palestinian independence rule Israel’s right-wing government.
UN Ambassador Gilad Erdan, who represents Israel, described the resolution as “disconnected to the reality on the ground” and issued a warning that it “will cause only destruction for years to come and harm any chance for future dialogue.”
Six months after Hamas, which ruled Gaza, launched an onslaught on southern Israel on October 7 and claimed 1,200 lives in “the most brutal massacre of Jews since the Holocaust,” He said that the Security Council was attempting to ” reward the perpetrators of these atrocities with statehood.”
According to Gaza’s health ministry, Israel’s military onslaught in retaliation has killed over 32,000 Palestinians and damaged most of the region, a point lately criticized by speaker after speaker.
Erdan enumerated the prerequisites for UN membership, including adherence to the Charter’s duties and, most importantly, being a “peace-loving” state.
“What a joke,” he noted. “Does anyone doubt that the Palestinians failed to meet these criteria? Did anyone hear any Palestinian leader even condemn the massacre of our children?”
