MUSCAT/ UN: The Sultanate of Oman on Friday welcomed the UN general assembly's vote overwhelmingly to back the Palestinian bid for full UN membership, in a move that signalled Israel’s growing isolation on the world stage amid global alarm over the war in Gaza and the extent of the humanitarian crisis in the strip.
Oman said the recognition of the State of Palestine will pave the way for the two-state solution and the establishment of a peace in accordance with international resolutions.
The United Nations General Assembly recognised Palestine as qualified to join and recommending the UN Security Council "reconsider the matter favourably."
The vote by the 193-member General Assembly was a global survey of support for the Palestinian bid to become a full UN member — a move that would effectively recognise a Palestinian state — after the United States vetoed it in the UN Security Council last month.
The assembly adopted a resolution on Friday with 143 votes in favour and nine against — including the US and Israel — while 25 countries abstained. It does not give the Palestinians full UN membership, but simply recognises them as qualified to join.
The General Assembly resolution "determines that the State of Palestine... should therefore be admitted to membership" and it "recommends that the Security Council reconsider the matter favourably."
The Palestinian push for full UN membership comes seven months into a war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, and as Israel is expanding settlements in the occupied West Bank, which the UN considers to be illegal.
"We want peace, we want freedom," Palestinian UN Ambassador Riyad Mansour told the General Assembly before the vote. "A yes vote is a vote for Palestinian existence, it is not against any state... It is an investment in peace."
"Voting yes is the right thing to do," he said in remarks that drew applause.
Under the founding UN Charter, membership is open to "peace-loving states" that accept the obligations in that document and are able and willing to carry them out.
"As long as so many of you are 'Jew-hating,' you don't really care that the Palestinians are not 'peace-loving,'" said UN Ambassador Gilad Erdan, who spoke after Mansour. He accused the Assembly of shredding the UN Charter — as he used a small shredder to destroy a copy of the Charter while at the lectern.
The ambassador said on Monday that, if the measure was approved, he expected the US to cut funding to the United Nations and its institutions, in accordance with American law.
An application to become a full UN member first needs to be approved by the 15-member Security Council and then the General Assembly. If the measure is again voted on by the council it is likely to face the same fate: a US veto.
"The council must respond to the will of the international community," United Arab Emirates UN Ambassador Mohamed Abushahab told the assembly before the vote.
The General Assembly resolution adopted on Friday does give the Palestinians some additional rights and privileges from September 2024 — like a seat among the UN members in the assembly hall — but they will not be granted a vote in the body.
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. — Reuters with ONA inputs
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