The international community is supporting the Palestinians: they are getting more rights at the UN. Germany abstains, international pressure on the USA increases. What the UN resolution means.
The United Nations General Assembly significantly strengthens the role of the Palestinians within the largest UN body. It adopted a resolution by a large majority that would allow the Palestinians to behave in the UN General Assembly in a similar way to normal members.
In the future, representatives of Palestine will also be allowed to speak on topics that have nothing to do with the Middle East conflict. You can also submit amendments to resolutions or suggest new agenda items. The resolution calls on other United Nations bodies to grant similar rights to Palestine. 143 countries voted for the resolution, 9 states voted against it. 25 countries abstained – including Germany. The USA rejected the request.
“If immediate full membership would end all the suffering we are experiencing, we would have voted yes today wholeheartedly,” said German Deputy Ambassador Thomas Zahneisen in New York. However, only direct negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians could lead to sustainable peace; a two-state solution is needed.
No more voting rights for Palestinians
However, the resolution does not give the Palestinians regular voting rights, nor are they allowed to run for UN bodies. With the resolution, the assembly supported the Palestinians becoming a full member of the UN. This would actually mean the recognition of an independent state. However, the General Assembly cannot decide on this; such a step would have to be approved by the UN Security Council. The General Assembly called on the Security Council to re-examine the issue “benevolently”.
Pressure on the USA in the Security Council – new veto?
The UN General Assembly resolution now increases the pressure on the USA in particular. The Security Council voted on it once in April, but the USA blocked it with its veto. If the committee now discusses again whether the Palestinians should become a full member, this could happen again.
Shortly before the vote, the USA had already announced that it would veto again in this case. “Should the General Assembly adopt this resolution and refer the Palestinian application for membership back to the Security Council, we expect a similar result to that in April,” said US spokesman Nate Evans.
Even if the general assembly cannot decide on membership, the vote shows an international mood on the current developments in the Middle East war. At the United Nations, there is a clear majority for resolutions critical of Israel or pro-Palestinian. There is no right of veto in the general assembly.
Israeli UN Ambassador: “Shame on you”
Israel sharply criticized the decision. The UN is about to “advance the establishment of a Palestinian terrorist state,” Israeli UN Ambassador Gilad Erdan told the General Assembly. “They have opened the United Nations to modern-day Nazis and genocidal jihadists who are committed to establishing an Islamic state throughout Israel, in the region.” It makes him “sick”.
In a symbolic act, Erdan shredded pieces of paper in front of the lectern that read “United Nations Charter.” He ended his speech with the words “shame on you.”
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz also strongly condemned the decision: “The political theater of the United Nations made an arbitrary, absurd and incoherent decision that rewards the murderers of Hamas,” he wrote in the short message service X.
Palestinian UN representatives confident
The Palestinian UN mission at the general assembly was confident that it would one day become a full member of the UN: “Without a doubt the day will come when Palestine will take its rightful place in the community of free nations,” said the Palestinian UN representative. Ambassador Riad Mansur. “Occupation and colonialism as well as death and destruction” are not their fate, but freedom.
Of the 193 UN member states, more than 130 have so far recognized Palestine as an independent country. Like the USA, Germany is not one of them. In 2012, the Palestinian Autonomous Territories – similar to the Vatican – were upgraded to a non-member observer state at the United Nations. Within the UN system, Palestine is considered a “state”, but from Germany’s point of view, the country of Palestine does not exist as such – the Foreign Office speaks of “Palestinian areas” in relation to the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem.