New Delhi: As the United Nations General Assembly prepares to vote on the issue in the coming days following a blocked resolution in the Security Council, India on Wednesday (May 1) expressed hope that Palestine would be granted full membership of the United Nations and that the veto cast against this move in the Security Council would be “reconsidered in due course”.
On April 18, the United States vetoed a draft resolution that would grant full membership to Palestine in the UN. The American veto triggered the ‘veto initiative’ resolution which gave a mandate to the UNGA to convene within 10 working days of a negative vote being cast by one of the five permanent members of the Council.
Palestine can take part in all UN proceedings as a “permanent observer state”, but cannot cast any vote. A state can get full membership only after receiving approval from both the General Assembly and the Security Council.
Two weeks later after the US veto, the UNGA met on Wednesday in New York to discuss the implications of granting Palestine full membership in the global body.
“While we have noted that Palestine’s application for membership at the United Nations was not approved by the Security Council because of the aforesaid veto, I would like to state here at the very outset that in keeping with India’s long standing position, we hope that this would be reconsidered in due course and that Palestine’s endeavour to become a member of the United Nations will get endorsed,” said India’s permanent representative to the UN, Ruchira Kamboj.
She also stated that India will “participate actively” in the convening of the plenary meeting of the UNGA’s 10th emergency special session next week. The session is likely to see the General Assembly voting on a draft resolution related to Palestine’s full membership, tabled by the Arab Group.
Immediately after the October 7 attack by Hamas, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had expressed “solidarity” with Israel. However, India had to nuance its position and reiterate its support for the Palestinian cause after an Israeli airstrike hit a hospital in Gaza.
India had abstained on the first resolution approved by the UN General Assembly in October 2023 that called on Israel to allow for a humanitarian pause in Gaza. However, it voted in favour of the second UNGA resolution that called for a ceasefire in the fighting to allow increased flow of aid into Gaza.
Last month, India abstained on a resolution adopted by the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council that called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and an arms embargo on Israel.
More than 1,200 Israeli and foreign nationals were killed and over 200 were taken as hostages by Hamas. The Israeli military invasion of Gaza has killed over 34,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, as per UN figures.
Kamboj stated that “ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas has led to a large-scale loss of civilian lives, especially women and Children and a humanitarian crisis which is simply unacceptable”.
While not directly blaming Israel, the senior Indian diplomat said, “We have strongly condemned the deaths of civilians in the conflict. We firmly believe that international law and international humanitarian law must be respected by everyone under all circumstances”.
Restating India’s position, Kamboj also reiterated that New Delhi believed that “only a two-state solution achieved through direct and meaningful negotiations between both sides on final status issues will deliver an enduring peace”.
She also noted that India had strongly condemned the terror attack on Israel on October 7 and there could be “no justification for terrorism and hostage taking”.
