Palestinian Authority to push for vote this month on full United Nations membership
Bid must be approved by Security Council, can be vetoed by US; Israel says support for measure would be ‘prize to terror’
The Palestinian Authority wants the United Nations Security Council to vote this month to make it a full member of the world body, the Palestinian UN envoy told Reuters on Monday, a move that can be blocked by Israel’s ally the United States
Riyad Mansour, who has permanent observer status in the UN, made the PA’s plans public as the war between Israel and Palestinian Hamas terrorists in Gaza nears a six-month milestone and Israel is expanding settlements in the West Bank.
Mansour told Reuters that the aim was for the Security Council to make a decision at an April 18 ministerial meeting on the Middle East, but that a vote had yet to be scheduled. He said a 2011 PA application for full membership was still pending because the 15-member council never made a formal decision.
“The intention is to put the application to a vote in the Security Council this month,” he added.
Malta is president of the Security Council for April. Malta’s UN ambassador, Vanessa Frazier, said she had yet to receive a formal request for action from the PA.
Alongside a push to end the war, global pressure has grown for a resumption of efforts to broker a two-state solution — with an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel.
The war began when Hamas terrorists unleashed a devastating onslaught on southern Israeli communities on October 7, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and seizing 253 hostages. Israel then launched an offensive aimed at eliminating the terror group in the Gaza Strip and freeing the hostages.
UN approval
An application to become a full UN member needs to be approved by the Security Council — where the United States can cast a veto — and then at least two-thirds of the 193-member General Assembly.
The US mission to the UN did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Israel’s UN Ambassador Gilad Erdan said that the PA had not met the required criteria for statehood in its 2011 bid for full UN membership and “has only moved further from the goals it should achieve since.”
“In addition, whoever supports recognizing a Palestinian state at such a time not only gives a prize to terror, but also backs unilateral steps which are contradictory to the agreed upon principle of direct negotiations,” Erdan said.
A Security Council committee assessed the PA’s application in 2011 for several weeks. But the committee did not reach a unanimous position and the council never voted on a resolution to recommend membership.
At the time, diplomats said the PA did not have enough support in the Security Council to force a veto by the United States, which had said it opposed the move. A resolution needs at least nine votes in favor and no vetoes by the US, Russia, China, France, or Britain to be adopted.
Instead of pushing for a council vote, the PA went to the UN General Assembly seeking to become a non-member observer state. The assembly approved de facto recognition of the sovereign State of Palestine in November 2012.
Little progress has been made in achieving Palestinian statehood since the signing of the Oslo Accords between Israel and the PA in the early 1990s. Among the obstacles are persistent Palestinian terrorism and incitement against the Jewish state, along with expanding Israeli settlements.
The PA, headed by President Mahmoud Abbas, exercises limited self-rule in the West Bank and is Israel’s partner in the Oslo Accords. Hamas in 2007 ousted the Palestinian Authority from power in the Gaza Strip.
US President Joe Biden’s administration said in February that Israel’s expansion of West Bank settlements was inconsistent with international law, signaling a return to long-standing US policy on the issue that had been reversed by the previous administration of Donald Trump.
