Israel & US Fume As UN Votes To Elevate Palestine’s Status
There were fireworks at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on Friday as Israel tried to fight back against a Palestinian bid to become a full UN member.
The assembly adopted a new resolution which puts the ‘State of Palestine’ on the pathway to future full membership in a vote of 143 to 9, with the US and Israel on the ‘no’ side. The resolution recognizes Palestine as “qualified to join” and the resolution text was described as essentially a global survey on the open question of full membership.
The move formally recommends to the UN Security Council that it “reconsider the matter favorably.” Since 2012 Palestine has been a non-member observer state. But now the General Assembly “determines that the State of Palestine…should therefore be admitted to membership” and it “recommends that the Security Council reconsider the matter favorably,” according to the resolution text.
A few extra procedural rights were also granted by Friday’s vote: “The General Assembly resolution adopted on Friday does give the Palestinians some additional rights and privileges from September 2024 — like a seat among the UN members in the assembly hall — but they will not be granted a vote in the body,” Times of Israel writes.
Israel is of course fuming, and the below spectacle played out before the UN General Assembly, complete with an interesting prop…
Foreign Minister Israel Katz also chimed in, describing the upgrade in status of Palestinians in the UN a “prize for Hamas” in a statement released by his office.
