General Assembly supports Palestinian membership of UN
On 10 May 2024, 143 out of 193 members of the UN General Assembly voted in favour of a resolution to upgrade Palestine’s rights at the United Nations as an observer State and urging the Security Council to favourably consider its full membership.
The President of the General Assembly, Dennis Francis of Trinidad and Tobago, said: “As today’s United Nations, we cannot lose sight of the history we inherit — or the bold proposition that brought our Organization into being: Peace for all.” He said the only viable path towards a just, comprehensive and lasting peace in the Middle East is through the two-State solution — with Israel and Palestine living side by side in peace and security, in line with international law, the Charter of the United Nations and relevant UN resolutions.
Most immediately, he urged the parties to this conflict — with the support of those with leverage — to “do their utmost to secure an agreement of ceasefire that will end the suffering, end the bloodshed, free all hostages, protect innocent civilians and ensure immediate, unhindered access to humanitarian aid, without conditions, for all who are in dire need. While we have lost too much time…no problem of human relations is insoluble.”
The observer for the State of Palestine said “I stand before you as more than 35,000 Palestinians have been killed, 80,000 have been maimed, 2 million have been displaced and everything has been destroyed.” Palestinians in Gaza are hunted by bombs and bullets in an ever-narrowing space, famine is setting in and, instead of opening crossings, Israel has closed them. “At the time where the world was calling to flood Gaza with humanitarian aid and calling for a ceasefire, Israel imposed a drought,” he emphasized, adding: “Its plan has not changed — destroy and displace.” Recalling that he “has stood hundreds of times before at this podium” — often in tragic circumstances — he underscored that he has never done so ahead of a more significant vote than the one about to take place — “a historic one”. He stressed that, while Palestinians did not write the Charter of the United Nations — nor enact international law — “we just demanded to see them applied to us — and have been, until now, denied their protection”.
Stating that occupation, colonialism, death and destruction are not Palestinians’ fate — they are imposed — he underscored: “But freedom is our sole destiny.” Israel has made clear that it wants to destroy Palestinian Statehood, and he questioned what it means to support a two-State solution if one allows for the destruction of the Palestinian State. Palestine has been — for generations — “the ultimate test for humanity’s ability to live up to its promises”, he stressed, calling on those who invoked the Charter during negotiations to abide by Palestinians’ right to self-determination, which is guaranteed by that document. Voting “yes” today is a vote for Palestinian existence — it is not against any State, but it is against attempts to deprive Palestinians of a State. He added: “In simple words, voting yes is the right thing to do.”
The representative of Israel said that while Holocaust Remembrance Day is commemorated this week, “this shameless body has chosen to reward the modern-day Nazis with rights and privileges”, he said. Today’s destructive vote will only open the doors of the United Nations to the terrorists-supporting Palestinian Authority, which does not even have control of its own territory. Hamas controls Gaza and has also taken over Palestinian neighbourhoods in the West Bank. The group is predicted to win a Palestinian election. “You are about to grant privileges and rights to the future terror State of Hamas,” he said. In the years to come, the Assembly will have to explain how — in opposition to all morality and the Charter of the United Nations — it supported mass murderers — “the Hitler of our time”. If Hamas rises to power, the Palestinian representative who just spoke here will be recalled, and the UN will have a representative of Hamas sit in this Hall. “Today another travesty is being committed by the Assembly,” he said.
According to the Charter of the United Nations, its membership can be granted to all “peace-loving States”, he recalled, adding: The admission of any such State to membership is decided by the Assembly on the recommendation of the Security Council. “With today’s vote, you’re totally bypassing the Security Council in violation of the Charter,” he said. The Palestinians are the exact opposite of peace-loving. They have only tried to destroy Israel. The Palestinians indoctrinate their children to murder Israelis and commit terrorism. When Israel defends itself, the Palestinian representative comes here shedding his crocodile tears. When it comes to the lives of Israelis and Jews, the Charter “means nothing to you”, he deplored. “I will hold up a mirror — this is your mirror so you can see exactly what you are inflicting upon the UN Charter with this destructive vote,” he said, and shredded a few pages of a UN Charter booklet before leaving the podium.
The representative of the United Kingdom said her delegation remains firmly committed to a two-State solution that guarantees security and stability for both the Israeli and Palestinian people. As stated in the Council in April, her delegation is abstaining from this resolution because it believes the first step to achieving this goal is resolving the immediate crisis in Gaza and securing a deal that gets the hostages out and allows for a pause in the fighting in Gaza. Then this pause must be turned into a sustainable permanent ceasefire. Her delegation remains deeply concerned about the prospect about a major operation in Rafah.
More information: https://press.un.org/en/2024/ga12599.doc.htm