By Mayank Chhaya-
The United Nations General Assembly overwhelmingly on May 10 voted in favor of a resolution that upgrades Palestine’s rights at the world body as an Observer State may fall short of full membership but sends a powerful message to both Israel and the United States.
The 143 to 9 votes in favor of the resolution with 25 abstentions comes at a symbolically powerful time when Palestine is being pounded by the Israeli war machine.
India voted in favor of the resolution.
Inevitably, both the U.S. and Israel voted no. Gild Erdan, Permanent Representative of Israel to the UN, was apoplectic in his denunciation of the vote saying, “Today, you are doing the opposite…welcoming a terror State into its ranks. You have opened up the United Nations to modern-day Naziism. It makes me sick.”
As if his outrage was not evident, he even brought a portable electric document shredder and inserted the cover of the UN Charter.
“Today, you have a choice between weakness and fighting terror,” he said, adding that the UN is appeasing “murderous dictators” and destroying the UN Charter. “This day will go down in infamy.”
Robert Wood, the U.S. Ambassador to the U.N., nuanced his vote against the resolution saying it did not reflect opposition to Palestinian statehood.
“We have been very clear that we support it and seek to advance it meaningfully. Instead, it is an acknowledgment that statehood will come from a process that involves direct negotiations between the parties,” he said.
“There is no other path that guarantees Israel’s security and future as a democratic Jewish state. There is not other path that guarantees Palestinians can live in peace and dignity in a state of their own,” he said.
Riyad Mansour, Permanent Observer of the observer State of Palestine, reminded the assembly of the devastating impacts of the ongoing war in Gaza, with over 35,000 Palestinians killed, some 80,000 injured and over two million displaced.
“No words can capture what such loss and trauma signify for Palestinians, their families, their communities and for our nation as whole,” he said.
He added that the Palestinians in Gaza have been pushed to the “very edge” of the Strip, “to the very brink of life” with “bombs and bullets haunting them”.
Mansour said that despite the attacks and destruction, the flag of Palestine “flies high and proud” in Palestine and across the globe becoming a “symbol raised by all those who believe in freedom and its just rule”.
The upgrades for Palestine will mean the following in specific terms:
- To be seated among Member States in alphabetical order;
- make statements on behalf of a group;
- submit proposals and amendments and introduce them;
- co-sponsor proposals and amendments, including on behalf of a group;
- propose items to be included in the provisional agenda of the regular or special sessions and the right to request the inclusion of supplementary or additional items in the agenda of regular or special sessions;
- the right of members of the delegation of the State of Palestine to be elected as officers in the plenary and the Main Committees of the General Assembly;
- full and effective participation in United Nations conferences and international conferences and meetings convened under the auspices of the General Assembly or, as appropriate, under the auspices of other organs of the United Nations.
The General Assembly urged the Security Council to give “favorable consideration” to Palestine’s request for a full statehood. However, there are no prospects of that happening since as recently as last month the Security Council vetoed such a move.
As part of the resolution, the General Assembly will upgrade the rights of the State of Palestine within the world body – but not the right to vote or put forward its candidature to organs such as the Security Council or the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).
