U.N. resolution grants Palestinians new rights, revives membership bid

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas addresses the U.N. General Assembly in 2022.

By Edith M. Lederer

May 10, 2024 Updated 2:11 PM PT

UNITED NATIONS —

The U.N. General Assembly voted by a wide margin on Friday to grant new “rights and privileges” to Palestinians and called on the Security Council to favorably reconsider their request to become the 194th member of the United Nations.

The 193-member world body approved the Arab- and Palestinian-sponsored resolution by a vote of 143 to 9 with 25 abstentions. The United States voted against it, along with Israel, Argentina, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau and Papua New Guinea.

While Friday’s resolution gives Palestinians some new rights and privileges, it reaffirms that it remains a nonmember observer state without full U.N. membership and without the right to vote in the General Assembly.

U.S. Deputy Ambassador Robert Wood said Friday that for the United States to support Palestinian statehood, direct negotiations must guarantee Israel’s security and future as a democratic Jewish state and that Palestinians can live in peace in a state of their own.

The United States vetoed a widely backed council resolution on April 18 that would have paved the way for full U.N. membership, a goal the Palestinians have long sought and that Israel has worked to prevent.

Under the U.N. 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. Palestinians were granted U.N. nonmember observer status in 2012.

The United States considers Friday’s resolution an attempt to get around the charter’s provisions, Wood reiterated Thursday.

Unlike resolutions in the Security Council, there are no vetoes in the 193-member General Assembly. Friday’s resolution required a two-thirds majority of members voting and got more than the 118-vote minimum.

U.S. allies supported the resolution, including France, Japan, South Korea, Spain, Australia, Estonia and Norway. European countries were divided.

The resolution “determines” that a Palestinian state is qualified for membership — dropping the original language that in the General Assembly’s judgment it is “a peace-loving state.” It therefore recommends that the Security Council reconsider its request “favorably.”

The renewed push for full Palestinian membership in the U.N. comes as the war in Gaza has put the more than 75-year-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict at center stage.

The latest war began with the Hamas militant group’s surprise attack in southern Israel in October, in which it killed about 1,200 people and took about 250 others hostage. At numerous council and assembly meetings, the humanitarian crisisfacing Palestinians in Gaza and the killing of more than 34,800 people in the territory, according to Gaza health officials, have generated outrage from many countries.

A General Assembly resolution on Oct. 27 calling for a humanitarian cease-fire in Gaza was approved 120 to 14 with 45 abstentions.

Before Friday’s vote, Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian U.N. ambassador, told the assembly in an emotional speech that “no words can capture what such loss and trauma signifies for Palestinians, their families, communities and for our nation as a whole.”

He said Palestinians in Gaza “have been pushed to the very edge of the strip, to the very brink of life,” with Israel besieging Rafah.

Mansour accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of preparing “to kill thousands to ensure his political survival” and aiming to destroy the Palestinian people.

Israel’s U.N. ambassador, Gilad Erdan, vehemently opposed the resolution, accusing U.N. member nations of not mentioning Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack and seeking “to reward modern-day Nazis with rights and privileges.”

He said if an election were held today, Hamas would win, and warned U.N. members that they were “about to grant privileges and rights to the future terror state of Hamas.” He held up a photo of Yahya Sinwar, the mastermind of the Hamas attack on Israel, saying a terrorist would be a future Palestinian leader.

Erdan also accused the assembly of trampling on the U.N. Charter, putting two pages that said “U.N. Charter” in a small shredder he held up.

The original draft of the assembly resolution was changed significantly to address concerns not only by the U.S. but also Russia and China, according to three Western diplomats, who spoke on condition of anonymity because negotiations were private.

The first draft would have conferred on a Palestinian state “the rights and privileges necessary to ensure its full and effective participation” in the assembly’s sessions and U.N. conferences “on equal footing with member states.” It also made no reference to whether the Palestinians could vote in the General Assembly.

According to the diplomats, Russia and China, which are strong supporters of the Palestinians’ U.N. membership, were concerned that granting the list of rights and privileges detailed in an annex to the resolution could set a precedent for other would-be U.N. members — with Russia concerned about Kosovo and China about Taiwan.

Under long-standing legislation by Congress, the United States is required to cut off funding to United Nations agencies that give full membership to a Palestinian state — which could mean a cutoff in dues and voluntary contributions to the United Nations from its largest contributor.

The final draft that was voted on dropped the language that would put a Palestinian state “on equal footing with member states.” And to address Chinese and Russian concerns, it would decide “on an exceptional basis and without setting a precedent” to adopt the rights and privileges in the annex.

The draft also added a provision in the annex on the issue of voting, stating categorically: “The state of Palestine, in its capacity as an observer state, does not have the right to vote in the General Assembly or to put forward its candidature to United Nations organs.”

The resolution gives the Palestinians the right to speak on all issues, not just those related to the Middle East; the right to propose agenda items and reply in debates; and the right to be elected as officers in the assembly’s main committees. It also allows Palestinians the right to participate in U.N. and international conferences convened by the United Nations — without the right to vote.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas first delivered the authority’s application for U.N. membership in 2011. It failed because the Palestinians didn’t get the required minimum support of nine of the Security Council’s 15 members.

They went to the General Assembly and succeeded by more than a two-thirds majority in having their status raised from a U.N. observer to a nonmember observer state.

That opened the door for the Palestinian territories to join U.N. and other international organizations, including the International Criminal Court.

In the Security Council vote April 18, the Palestinians got much more support for full U.N. membership. The vote was 12 in favor, with Britain and Switzerland abstaining, and the United States voting no and vetoing the resolution.

On Oct. 27, weeks after the Hamas attack, a General Assembly resolution calling for a humanitarian cease-fire in Gaza was approved 120 to 14 with 45 abstentions.

Lederer writes for the Associated Press.