UN General Assembly set to vote today on symbolic measure backing Palestinian statehood

By Agencies and ToI Staff 10 May 2024, 7:58 am

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Palestinian Authority Ambassador to the United Nations Riyad Mansour speaks during a UN Security Council meeting on the situation in the Middle East, at the UN headquarters in New York on March 25, 2024. (ANGELA WEISS / AFP)

The United Nations General Assembly is set to back a Palestinian bid to become a full UN member by recognizing it as qualified to join and sending the application back to the UN Security Council to “reconsider the matter favorably.”

While unlikely to change the Palestinians’ status at the world body, today’s vote will effectively act as a global survey of how much support Ramallah has for its bid, which was vetoed by the United States in the UN Security Council last month.

An application for full UN member status needs to be approved by the 15-member Security Council and then the General Assembly.

Diplomats say the draft text is likely to get the support needed to be adopted.

Israeli Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan denounced the draft General Assembly resolution this week, saying it would give the Palestinians the de facto status and rights of a state and goes against the founding UN Charter.

The Palestinians are currently a non-member observer state, a de facto recognition of statehood granted by the UN General Assembly in 2012.

The Palestinian UN mission in New York, run by the PA, said in a letter to UN member states yesterday that adopting the draft resolution would be an investment in preserving the long-sought after two-state solution.