São Paulo – The United Nations voted overwhelmingly on Friday (10) to grant Palestine full membership. The decision is not binding but is symbolic.
The resolution, introduced by the United Arab Emirates, was approved by 143 countries, including Brazil. A group 25 abstained from voting, while nine voted against it, including the United States, Israel, Argentine, the Czech Republic, and Hungary.
“I have stood hundreds of times before at this podium, but never for a more significant vote than the one about to take place, an historic one,” Palestinian ambassador to the UN Riyad Mansour said before the vote, his voice full of emotion.
With the war in Gaza raging, the Palestinians in April relaunched a request dating back to 2011 to become full members of the United Nations, where their current status is that of a “nonmember observer state.”
To succeed, the initiative needed a Security Council green light and then a two-thirds majority vote in the General Assembly. But the United States blocked it on April 18.
The resolution, introduced by the United Arab Emirates, says, “The State of Palestine is qualified for membership in the United Nations in accordance,” and it calls on the Security Council to “reconsider the matter favorably.”
Rights for Palestine
Richard Gowan, an analyst with the International Crisis Group, said the move could create “a sort of diplomatic doom loop, with the Assembly repeatedly calling for the Council to grant Palestine membership and the US vetoing it.”
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The draft resolution nonetheless gives the Palestinians certain “additional rights and privileges” starting in the next session of the General Assembly, in September.
The text explicitly rules out letting the Palestinians be chosen to sit on the Security Council, but it lets them submit proposals and amendments directly, without having to go through another country, as is the case now.
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Translated by Guilherme Miranda
