New Delhi: India has voted in favour of a draft UN General Assembly resolution which called for the admission of Palestine into the United Nations as a full member. The resolution recommended that the Security Council “reconsider” the matter “favourably”, PTI reported.
The resolution, which was approved, would grant new “rights and privileges” to Palestine by a vote of 143 to 9 with 25 abstentions. The vote also recognises Palestine’s right to become the 194th member of the body.
Now, the Palestinian membership bid will be forwarded to the UN Security Council to “reconsider the matter favourably.”
Last month, a similar bid submitted to the Security Council was vetoed by the United States despite widespread support in the General Assembly. The US is expected to veto it again.
According to DW, US deputy UN ambassador Robert Wood said the Biden administration would oppose the resolution.
In the event of Palestine becoming a full member, it would mean acknowledgement of Palestinian statehood, which Israel, a close US ally, has fought to keep from happening.
However, Palestine has been a non-voting observer to the UN since 2012. Earlier, some nations had raised issue with regard to the Palestinian bid, pointing to the requirement that prospective members must be “peace-loving nations.”
The situation in the Palestinian Territories, and specifically Gaza, where more than 34,000 people have been killed since Israel launched its retaliatory military operation in response to an October 7, 2023, attack by Islamist Hamas militants, has repeatedly enraged members of the General Assembly who have called for a cease-fire in the enclave.
Hamas – considered by the US, European Union and others to be a terrorist organisation – has run Gaza since 2007. The Israel-occupied West Bank is partially administered by the Palestinian Authority, a Hamas rival.
