Christian Smith
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. General Assembly is expected to vote Friday on a resolution that would grant new “rights and privileges” to Palestine and call on the Security Council to favorably reconsider its request to become the 194th member of the United Nations .
The United States vetoed a widely supported council resolution on April 18 that would have paved the way for Palestine’s full membership in the United Nations, a goal that the Palestinians have long sought and that Israel has worked to avoid, and the deputy ambassador US President Robert Wood made it clear on Thursday that the Biden administration opposes the assembly’s resolution.
Under the Charter of the United Nations, potential members of the United Nations must be “peace-loving” and the Security Council must recommend their admission to the General Assembly for final approval. Palestine became a non-UN observer state in 2012.
“We have been very clear from the beginning that there is a process to gain full membership in the United Nations, and this effort by some Arab and Palestinian countries is to try to get around that,” Wood said on Thursday. “We have said from the beginning that the best way to guarantee full Palestinian membership of the UN is to do so through negotiations with Israel. That remains our position.”
But unlike the Security Council, there are no vetoes in the 193-member General Assembly and the resolution is expected to be approved by a large majority, according to three Western diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity because the negotiations were private.
The draft resolution “determines” that a State of Palestine is qualified for membership – abandoning the original language that, in the opinion of the General Assembly, it is “a peace-loving State”. It therefore recommends that the Security Council reconsider its request “favorably”.
The renewed push for full Palestinian membership in the UN comes at a time when the war in Gaza has put the more than 75-year-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the spotlight. In numerous council and assembly meetings, the humanitarian crisis facing Palestinians in Gaza and the killing of more than 34,000 people in the territory, according to Gaza health officials, generated outrage in many countries.
The assembly’s original draft resolution was changed significantly to address concerns not only from the US, but also from Russia and China, diplomats said.
The first project would have granted Palestine “the rights and privileges necessary to ensure its full and effective participation” in the assembly sessions and UN conferences “on an equal footing with the Member States”. Nor did he make any reference to the question of whether Palestine could vote in the General Assembly.
According to diplomats, Russia and China, who are strong supporters of Palestine’s membership of the UN, were concerned that granting the list of rights and privileges detailed in an annex to the resolution could set a precedent for other candidates for membership. UN members – with Russia worried about Kosovo and China about Taiwan.
Under long-standing legislation from the US Congress, the United States is required to cut funding to UN agencies that give full membership to a Palestinian state – which could mean a cut in dues and voluntary contributions to the UN from its largest contributor.
The final version eliminates language that would place Palestine “on an equal footing with Member States.” And to respond to Chinese and Russian concerns, it would decide “on an exceptional and unprecedented basis” to adopt the rights and privileges contained in the annex.
The draft also adds a provision in the annex on the issue of voting, stating categorically: “The State of Palestine, in its capacity as an observer State, does not have the right to vote in the General Assembly or to present its candidacy for Organs of the United Nations .”
The final list of rights and privileges in the draft annex includes giving Palestine the right to speak on all issues, not just those relating to the Palestinians and the Middle East, the right to propose agenda items and respond in debates, and the right to be elected as officers on the main committees of the assembly. It would give Palestinians the right to participate in the United Nations and in international conferences convened by the United Nations – but eliminates their “right to vote” that was in the original draft.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas first submitted the Palestinian Authority’s application for UN membership in 2011. The application failed because the Palestinians did not obtain the minimum support required from nine of the 15 members of the Security Council.
They went to the General Assembly and managed, by a majority of more than two-thirds, to have their status upgraded from UN observer to non-member observer state. This opened the door for the Palestinian territories to join the UN and other international organizations, including the International Criminal Court.
In the April 18 Security Council vote, the Palestinians gained much more support for full UN membership. The vote was 12 votes in favor, the United Kingdom and Switzerland abstained and the United States voted no and vetoed the resolution.
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