US vetoes Palestinian UN membership bid in Security Council
The Palestinians are currently a non-member observer state, a de facto recognition of statehood that was granted by the UN General Assembly in 2012. But an application to become a full UN member needs to be approved by the Security Council and then at least two-thirds of the General Assembly.
“Recent escalations make it even more important to support good-faith efforts to find lasting peace between Israel and a fully independent, viable and sovereign Palestinian state,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the council earlier on Thursday.
“Failure to make progress towards a two-State solution will only increase volatility and risk for hundreds of millions of people across the region, who will continue to live under the constant threat of violence,” he said.
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Israel’s UN ambassador Gilad Erdan said Palestinians failed to meet the criteria to become a full UN member, which he outlined as: a permanent population, defined territory, government, and capacity to enter relations with other states.
“Who is the council voting to ‘recognise’ and give full membership status to? Hamas in Gaza? The Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Nablus? Who?” Erdan asked the Security Council earlier on Thursday.
He said granting full UN membership to Palestinians “will have zero positive impact for any party, that will cause only destruction for years to come, and harm any chance for future dialogue”.
The Palestinian presidency said the US veto was “unfair, unethical and unjustified”.
The US policy “represents a blatant aggression against international law and an encouragement to the pursuit of the genocidal war against our people … which pushes the region ever further to the edge of the abyss”, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas’s office said in a statement.
The veto at the Security Council “reveals the contradictions of American policy”, which claims to support a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict but at the same time “prevents the implementation of this solution”, the statement added.
“The world is united behind the values of truth, justice, freedom and peace that the Palestinian cause represents,” said the Palestinian Authority, which sits in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank.
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Israel Katz, Israel’s foreign minister, said he commended the United States for casting a veto.
“The shameful proposal was rejected. Terrorism will not be rewarded,” said Katz.
The Palestinian Authority, headed by Abbas, exercises limited self-rule in the West Bank. Hamas ousted the Palestinian Authority from power in Gaza in 2007.
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Ziad Abu Amr, special envoy of Abbas, earlier asked the US: “How could this damage the prospects of peace between Palestinians and Israelis? How could this recognition and this membership harm international peace and security?”
“Those who are trying to disrupt and hinder the adoption of such a resolution … are not helping the prospects of peace between Palestinians and Israelis and the prospects for peace in the Middle East in general,” he told the Security Council.
Abu Amr said full Palestinian UN membership was not an alternative for serious political negotiations to implement a two-state solution and resolve pending issues, adding: “However, this resolution will grant hope to the Palestinian people hope for a decent life within an independent state.”
Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse