The UN General Assembly was yesterday expected to back a Palestinian bid to become a full UN member by recognizing it as qualified to join and sending the application back to the UN Security Council to “reconsider the matter favorably.”
The Palestinians are reviving their bid to become a full UN member — a move that would effectively recognize a Palestinian state — after the US last month vetoed it in the 15-member UN Security Council.
Yesterday’s vote by the 193-member General Assembly would act as a global survey of support for the Palestinians. An application to become a full UN member first needs to be approved by the Security Council and then the General Assembly.
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While the General Assembly alone cannot grant full UN membership, the draft resolution being put to a vote would give the Palestinians some additional rights and privileges from September next year — such as a seat among the UN members in the assembly hall — but it would not be granted a vote in the body.
Diplomats said the draft text is likely to get the support needed to be adopted.
The Palestinian push for full UN membership comes seven months into a war between Israel and Palestinian group Hamas in the Gaza Strip, and as Israel is expanding settlements in the occupied West Bank, which the UN considers to be illegal.
The Palestinians are currently a non-member observer state, a de facto recognition of statehood that was granted by the UN General Assembly in 2012.
The Palestinian UN mission in New York on Thursday said in a letter to UN member states that adoption of the draft resolution backing full UN membership would be an investment in preserving the long-sought for “two-state solution.”
It said it would “constitute a clear reaffirmation of support at this very critical moment for the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, including the right to their independent State.”
The US mission to the UN said earlier this week: “It remains the US view that the path toward statehood for the Palestinian people is through direct negotiations.”
Israeli Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan on Monday denounced the draft text for attempting to give the Palestinians de facto status and rights of a state. He said the adoption of the text would not change anything on the ground.
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