Despite U.S.’ opposition, U.N. General Assembly backs Palestine’s bid for full membership

U.N. General Assembly votes to grant new rights to Palestine, U.S. opposes resolution for full U.N. membership.

The U.N. General Assembly voted by a wide margin on May 10 to grant new “rights and privileges” to Palestine and called on the United Nations Security Council to favourably reconsider its 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 143-9 with 25 abstentions.

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

U.S. Deputy Ambassador Robert Wood made clear on May 9 that the Biden administration opposed the resolution. The United States was among the nine countries voting against it, along with Israel.

“We’ve been very clear from the beginning there is a process for obtaining full membership in the United Nations, and this effort by some of the Arab countries and the Palestinians is to try to go around that,” Mr. Wood said May 9. “We have said from the beginning the best way to ensure Palestinian full membership in the U.N. is to do that through negotiations with Israel. That remains our position.”

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. Palestine became a U.N. non-member observer state in 2012.

The resolution “determines” that the state of Palestine 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 “favourably.”

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 centre stage. At numerous council and assembly meetings, the humanitarian crisis facing the Palestinians in Gaza and the killing of more than 34,000 people in the territory, according to Gaza health officials, have generated outrage from many countries.