In this clip from March 1949, the UN Security Council votes to admit Israel as a member nation. The decision then awaited the General Assembly’s May approval.
In the video, nine nations vote for Israel, Britain abstains, and Egypt votes nay.
It was the third time since its establishment in 1948 that Israel had applied for membership in the UN, previously without success.
“If approved by the General Assembly,” the announcer narrates, “Israel will become the 59th nation to join the UN. Israel takes another big step forward.”
(The Associated Press and Movietone News recently released their vast video archives on YouTube, allowing the public to freely access a million minutes worth of historical news clips dating back to 1895 — including many iconic scenes from Israel’s history featured in this Times of Israel series.)
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