The first vote on Palestinian full UN membership in more than ten years. The USA blocked with an announcement. Iran used the stage to issue warnings.
Washington DC - The United States on Thursday (April 18) became the only country to vote against a UN Security Council resolution seeking to admit the Palestinian territories as a full UN member. Their veto prevented the measure proposed by Algeria on behalf of the Arab states. Twelve of the 15 council members voted in favor, while two, Great Britain and Switzerland, abstained.
U.S. officials had said a vote for statehood now would undermine the prospects for a lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinians, which must be negotiated between the two parties.
“President Biden has made clear that lasting peace in the region can only be achieved through a two-state solution,” U.S. Representative Robert Wood said after the vote. “There is no other path that guarantees Israel's security and future as a democratic Jewish state. There is no other way that guarantees that Palestinians can live in peace and with dignity in their own state.”
“We have also long understood that premature action here in New York, even with the best of intentions, will not achieve statehood for the Palestinian people,” Wood said.
Some UN states see the USA as responsible for the suffering of the Palestinian people
The vast majority of the council disagreed. Some said the United States and its unwavering support of Israel bore responsibility for the ongoing agony of the Palestinian people. “Today’s use of the veto by the US delegation is a hopeless attempt to stop the inevitable course of history,” said Russian Ambassador Vasily Nebenzya.
The result of the vote, with Washington “virtually in complete isolation, speaks for itself,” he said. The United States, along with its Israeli allies, bears “full responsibility for the deaths of tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians.”
Most others disagreed with the U.S. analysis that Palestinian statehood would undermine rather than promote peace and stability in the region. They argued that negotiations between two such unequal parties, one occupying the other's territory, could never lead to a fair solution.
Over decades of council meetings, the council has "been largely sympathetic to the Palestinian cause," said Guyana's ambassador, Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett. But “this sympathy has not generated sufficient political will to achieve a comprehensive, just and lasting solution to the Palestinian question.” Instead, Rodrigues-Birkett said, there have been “many Band-Aids on the symptoms” without “addressing the root cause of the problem – the long delay in the creation of an independent state of Palestine.”
US veto with announcement: Vote on Palestinian territories with no chance of success
The result of the vote was clear from the start, as the Biden administration had already announced in advance that it would veto the resolution. The resolution's adoption required both nine of 15 votes and the absence of a veto from a permanent member - which includes the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China. The government had urged members to vote no or abstain from voting in order to avoid a veto.
The non-permanent members of the Council represent regional blocs of countries and change every two years. Those who voted for the resolution were: Slovenia, Sierra Leone, South Korea, Mozambique, Malta, Japan, Guyana, Ecuador and Algeria, as well as Russia, China and France.
Great Britain abstains from Palestine vote: approval must “come at the end of the process”
But even the Council's closest allies did not support the US veto. Britain justified its abstention by saying that the path to a new future for the Palestinian territories was “not entirely our gift,” “but our recognition of a Palestinian state should be part of it.”
“We believe that such recognition of Palestinian statehood should not be at the start of a new process,” said British Ambassador Barbara Woodward. “But it doesn’t have to be at the end of the process either. (....) We must begin to resolve the immediate crisis in the Gaza Strip,” while the international community “works together to support the new Palestinian government as it takes urgently needed reform steps and resumes governance in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.” takes in”.
Algeria, which supported the resolution, said: “We will not abandon this course and will not rest until the goal is achieved.”
Palestinian Authority argues with “hope for a dignified life”
The vote came after a passionate, days-long debate involving not only council members but also non-voting UN members who had signed up to have a say. Several of them sent their foreign ministers. Many argued that a yes vote would send a message, even if it would not immediately lead to peace.
Ziad Abu Amr, special representative of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, and others repeatedly pointed out that the same 1947 UN resolution that ultimately led to the creation of the state of Israel also called for the creation of a Palestinian state. Passing the resolution would give Palestinians hope for a dignified life, "which has evaporated in recent years due to the intransigence of the Israeli government," he said.
Israeli ambassador on Palestinian requirements for UN membership: “A joke”
“How could granting the State of Palestine full membership in the United Nations (...) affect the prospects for peace between Palestinians and Israelis” or international peace, asked Abu Amr. “To those who say that recognition of a Palestinian state must come through negotiations and not through a UN resolution, we ask again how the State of Israel was founded.”
In an angry response, Israel's UN Ambassador Gilad Erdan called the idea that a "Palestinian nation-state" met the criteria for membership "a joke." If the resolution is adopted, Erdan said, the Security Council should be called the “Terror Council.”
Israeli ambassador calls UN meeting 'greater price to pay for terror' by Hamas
Recalling the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel that triggered the current war in Gaza, Erdan said that “the child-murdering Hamas rapists are watching this session and smiling. There is no greater price to pay for terror than today's meeting."
140 of 193 UN states already recognize Palestinian territories: Spain is following suit
Had the resolution been adopted by the Council, the matter would have been referred to the UN General Assembly, where two-thirds of the 193 member countries would have to agree. 140 UN members already recognize the Palestinian territories as a state - Spain announced its decision to become the last country to do so during Thursday's debate.
In 2012, the Palestinian territories were declared a permanent observer state of the United Nations, with the same status as the Vatican. However, full membership has not been considered for more than a decade, with the proposal shelved in anticipation of a U.S. veto before the vote.
Iran defends its attack on Israel at the UN meeting and calls for military restraint
Iran used its time on the panel to defend its missile and drone fire against Israel last weekend as a "legitimate defense under international law" and called on the international community to force Israel to "cease any further military adventurism against our interests." .
Iran’s military operations “have concluded,” Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said. However, if there is retaliation or further use of force by Israel, "Iran will not hesitate to exercise its right to provide a decisive and proportionate response," he said.
Amir-Abdollahian described the Iranian attack as an appropriate response to the Israeli airstrike on the consulate in Damascus on April 1, which killed seven members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Syrian civilians.
Michael Birnbaum contributed to this report.
We are currently testing machine translations. This article was automatically translated from English into German.
This article was first published in English on April 19, 2024 at the “Washingtonpost.com” - as part of a cooperation, it is now also available in translation to readers of the IPPEN.MEDIA portals.