UN General Assembly overwhelmingly backs Palestinian bid for membership

NEW YORK: The United Nations General Assembly Friday overwhelmingly backed a Palestinian bid to become a full U.N. member and voted by a wide margin to grant new “rights and privileges” to Palestine.

The international body approved the Arab and Palestinian-sponsored resolution with 143 votes in favor and nine against with 25 abstentions and recommended the U.N. Security Council “reconsider the matter favorably.” The United States voted against it, along with Israel, Argentina, Czechia, Hungary, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau and Papua New Guinea.

The vote reflected the wide global support for full membership of Palestine in the United Nations, with many countries expressing outrage at the escalating death toll in Gaza and fears of a major Israeli offensive in Rafah, a southern city where about 1.3 million Palestinians have sought refuge.

The resolution “determines that the State of Palestine … should therefore be admitted to membership” and it “recommends that the Security Council reconsider the request favorably.”

READ MORE: Norway’s Parliament Recognizes Palestine as an Independent State.

Before the vote, Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian U.N. ambassador, told the assembly in an emotional speech that “No words can capture what such loss and trauma signifies for Palestinians, their families, communities, and for our nation as a whole.”

He said Palestinians in Gaza “have been pushed to the very edge of the strip, to the very brink of life” with Israel besieging Rafah. He accused Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of preparing “to kill thousands to ensure his political survival” and aiming to destroy the Palestinian people.

He welcomed the resolution’s strong support and told the Associated Press that 144 countries have now recognized the state of Palestine, including four countries since Oct. 7, all from the Caribbean.

Israel’s U.N. Ambassador Gilad Erdan vehemently opposed the resolution, accusing U.N. member nations of not mentioning Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack and seeking to reward modern-day Nazis with rights and privileges.

In the Security Council vote on April 18, the Palestinians got much more support for full U.N. membership. The vote was 12 in favor, with the United Kingdom and Switzerland abstaining, and the United States voting against and vetoing the resolution.