Amidst the US veto in the Security Council, the UN General Assembly overwhelmingly supported the Palestinian application for full membership in the organization on Friday.
There were 143 votes in favor of the resolution, 9 against, and 25 abstentions. It says that the Palestinians should be allowed to enter the UN and be granted some additional privileges as observers.
After the US vetoed the Palestinians’ bid for full membership in the UN, the General Assembly of the UN voted overwhelmingly on Friday, May 10, to grant the Palestinians some extra privileges in the international organization.
Along with Israel, Argentina, Czechia, Hungary, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, and Papua New Guinea, the United States voted against it.
“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. “The day will come where Palestine will take its rightful place among the community of free nations,” he added.
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.
