The Palestinians failed to pass a major hurdle in their renewed effort to seek full United Nations membership on Thursday when the United States vetoed a Security Council resolution recommending their admission.
“It remains the U.S. view that the most expeditious path toward statehood for the Palestinian people is through direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority with the support of the United States and other partners,” said U.S. Deputy U.N. Ambassador Robert Wood.
He also expressed concern about unresolved questions as to whether the Palestinians meet the criteria to be considered a state.
“We have long called on the Palestinian Authority to undertake necessary reforms to help establish the attributes of readiness for statehood and note that Hamas – a terrorist organization – is currently exerting power and influence in Gaza, an integral part of the state envisioned in this resolution,” he said.
Twelve of the 15 council members voted in favor, while Britain and Switzerland abstained.
Britain’s ambassador affirmed support for a two-state solution for the Israelis and Palestinians, saying the Palestinians need a credible and irreversible route to a state.
“We believe that such recognition of Palestinian statehood should not come at the start of a new process, but it doesn’t have to be at the very end of the process,” Barbara Woodward said. “We must start with fixing the immediate crisis in Gaza.”
Switzerland’s envoy, Pascale Baeriswyl, said Palestinian membership should be considered at a future stage once there is peace.
U.N. membership begins in the Security Council and if the council recommends admission, it then goes to the full 193-member General Assembly for a vote. A new state needs a two-thirds majority of votes to win admission.
“We don’t want to replace anyone; we want to enter your club as equals,” Palestinian envoy Riyad Mansour told the council. He said they would not give up because the resolution was vetoed.
“The State of Palestine is inevitable,” he said. “It is real.”
Israel’s envoy was adamant that the council should not support Palestinian full membership, saying it would reward Hamas terrorists who had carried out the October 7 attack inside Israel that triggered the war in Gaza.
“Most of you, sadly, decided to reward Palestinian terror with a Palestinian state,” Ambassador Gilad Erdan said. “It’s very sad, because your vote will only embolden Palestinian rejectionism even more and make peace almost impossible.”
He thanked U.S. President Joe Biden for “standing up for truth and morality in the face of hypocrisy and politics.”
Despite the U.S. veto, the Palestinians had the support of the majority of council members.
"For Guyana, at its core, the Palestinian question is a question of justice,” Ambassador Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett said. “Thus far, justice has been delayed and, therefore, justice has been denied to the people of Palestine for more than seven decades.”
Algeria, as the representative of the Arab bloc of nations on the council, put forward the failed two-paragraph draft resolution recommending “to the General Assembly that the State of Palestine be admitted to membership in the United Nations.”
“This is an historic right that has not been implemented,” Foreign Minister Ahmed Attaf said. “And the lack of implementation of this right is the cause of the prolongation of this Arab-Israeli conflict. This is the cause of the lack of security and safety in our region – a region that has not known peace for over 70 years.”
Russia’s ambassador said based on “all moral imperatives” the Palestinians’ aspirations for membership should be met.
“Palestine has walked a lengthy and agonizing path towards this point,” Vassily Nebenzia said. “Since 2012, it has enjoyed a singular status at the U.N. – a nonmember observer state. It is one step away from permanent membership.”
After an initial bid in 2011 for full membership that stalled in the Security Council without ever coming to a vote, the Palestinians sought and received an upgrade in status at the General Assembly the following year to a “nonmember state.”
They still cannot vote, but the upgrade allowed them to become a party to treaties that are deposited with the U.N. secretary-general and to join U.N. bodies like the World Health Organization and the International Criminal Court.
