the resolution, to which Norway was a co-sponsor, “affirms the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, including the right to their independent state of Palestine”.
143 countries voted for the resolution, nine voted once morest, among them Israel and the USA. 25 other countries abstained from voting.
The resolution states that, according to Article 4 of the UN Charter, Palestine “is fully qualified for UN membership”.
Palestine will now have its rights strengthened in the UN, while the Security Council has the final word on full membership.
USA-veto
Friday’s resolution expresses “deep regret and concern” that the United States on April 18 vetoed Palestinian UN membership in the Security Council.
The UN General Assembly asks the Security Council to reconsider the issue and end Palestinian UN membership, says the text of the resolution.
However, the US makes it clear that it will once more veto if the question of Palestinian UN membership comes up on the table once more, a spokesman for the US UN delegation stated on Friday.
Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide (Ap) regrets this, but nevertheless believes that the new resolution brings Palestine one step closer to full membership.
– This is the strongest signal ever that the international community wants Palestine as a member of the UN, he says to NTB.
– Ethnic cleansing
The Palestinians’ UN ambassador Riyad Mansour made an emotional speech before the vote, in which he recalled the 35,000 who have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza in recent months.
– We are facing attempts to push us away from geography and history, said Mansour, who accused Israel of ethnic cleansing, apartheid and genocide.
– But we will never disappear, but we will never get back all the lives that have been lost, he said.
Mansour further urged UN member states to vote in favor of the resolution.
– A yes vote is a vote for Palestinian existence, he said.
– The Nazis of our time
Israel’s UN ambassador Gilad Erdan took the podium following Mansour and made a furious speech, knowing the outcome of the vote.
– You open the UN to the Nazis of our time who want to kill all Jews, said Erdan.
– You welcome a terrorist state, he said, and accused the countries that supported the resolution of having allowed themselves to be “threatened by the Palestinians’ diplomatic terror”.
– All the while so many of you are Jew-haters, you don’t really care that the Palestinians are not peace-loving, said Erdan.
– You spit on the UN charter, continued Israel’s UN ambassador, who demonstratively shredded one of the charter’s pages on the podium.
Unacceptable
– This goes far beyond what is acceptable, I have hardly seen the match, says Eide.
The Israeli government is now really putting itself out there with the whole world, he states.
– For me, this was almost a confirmation that it is now right to bring this into another track and not sit and wait for Israel to suddenly one day feel like negotiating, he says.
– A negotiated solution is unthinkable with this government, says Eide.
In the resolution, the UN General Assembly also asks the international community to step up and coordinate efforts to “immediately end the Israeli occupation that began in 1967”.
143 of the UN’s 193 member states have now recognized Palestine, and EU countries have announced that they will do so within a short time.
Recognition
Norway has not recognized Palestine as an independent state, but Eide confirms that Norwegian recognition may be close.
– Several European countries are working together to find the right time for recognition, he says.
But recognition is a tool that can only be used once, he emphasizes.
– It may well be that this is relatively imminent, but it will not happen next week, says Eide.
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2024-05-12 14:17:54
