Australia backs Palestine in huge United Nations call
Australia has voted ‘yes’ in a significant United Nations decision about Palestinians.
Australia has made a historic call on the Middle East by supporting a Palestinian bid to become a full member of the United Nations — a move that has left Israel furious.
The United Nations General Assembly decided to overwhelmingly to grant Palestinians additional rights in the global body, after their drive for full membership was blocked by the United States.
“I have stood hundreds of times before at this podium, but never for a more significant vote than the one about to take place, a historic one,” Palestinian ambassador to the UN Riyad Mansour said before the vote on Friday, his voice full of emotion.
He added, “The day will come where Palestine will take its rightful place among the community of free nations.”
Australia had previously abstained from voting when UN member nations overwhelmingly voted for a “sustained humanitarian truce” in the Israel-Gaza war to allow aid to reach Gazan civilians in October.
Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, spoke in anger before the vote, telling the General Assembly that: “As long as so many of you are ‘Jew-hating’, you don’t really care that the Palestinians are not ‘peace-loving’.
He accused the assembly of tearing apart the UN charter. He then used a shredder to destroy a copy of the charter at the lectern.
Palestine thanks Australia
Omar Awadalla, the assistant minister for the UN from the Palestinian Liberation Organisation that governs the West Bank, thanked Australia for its position on Friday.
“And this is an action and actionable step by Australia toward recognising the rights of the Palestinian people to self-determination, and to their membership to the United Nations,” Mr Awadalla told the ABC.
He said Australia was supporting with its actions the two-state solution, a plan to create a Palestinian state separate from the state of Israel.
“And we think that those states who want to support the peace and justice and stability in the Middle East should take the same decision like Australia did, by accepting Palestine in having their membership to the United Nations as a step toward achieving their independence … and having the two-state solution based on international law and very well-known differences and the Arab Peace Initiative.”
Israel has reacted angrily, with its UN ambassador, Gilad Erdan, saying the resolution made him sick.
“With this new precedent, we may see here representatives of ISIS or Boko Haram that will sit among us,” Erdan said, referring to two jihadist groups.
He said it would give “the rights of a state to an entity that is already partly controlled by terrorists, and will be replaced by a force of child-murdering Hamas rapists.”
US deputy ambassador to the UN Robert Wood called the resolution “an unproductive text.” While “our vote does not reflect opposition to Palestinian statehood,” Wood said after the resolution passed, “it remains the US view that unilateral measures at the UN and on the ground will not advance this goal.”
With the war in Gaza raging, the Palestinians in April relaunched a request dating back to 2011 to become full members of the United Nations, where their current status is that of a “non-member observer state.”
To succeed, the initiative needed a Security Council green light and then a two-thirds majority vote in the General Assembly.
But the United States – one of five veto-holding members on the Security Council and Israel’s closest ally – blocked it on April 18.
The resolution, introduced by the United Arab Emirates, says, “The State of Palestine is qualified for membership in the United Nations in accordance with Article 4 of the Charter and should therefore be admitted.”
It calls on the Security Council to “reconsider the matter favourably.”
The United States, however, opposes any recognition of statehood outside of a bilateral accord between the Palestinians and Israel, whose current right-wing government is adamantly opposed to a two-state solution.
While the passing of the resolution will “have a profound impact on the future of the Palestinian people,” said UAE Ambassador Mohamed Issa Abushahab, it “does not do justice to the state of Palestine, as it only grants additional rights, meaning that Palestine will remain an observer state.”
Richard Gowan, an analyst with the International Crisis Group, said the move could create “a sort of diplomatic doom loop, with the Assembly repeatedly calling for the Council to grant Palestine membership and the US vetoing it.”
The draft resolution nonetheless gives the Palestinians certain “additional rights and privileges” starting in the next session of the General Assembly, in September.
‘Symbolism is what matters’
The text explicitly rules out letting the Palestinians be chosen to sit on the Security Council or to vote in the General Assembly.
But it lets them submit proposals and amendments directly, without having to go through another country, as is the case now.
It also gives them the right to be seated among member states in alphabetical order.
“The symbolism is what matters,” said Gowan. “This resolution is a very clear signal to Israel and the US that it is time to take Palestinian statehood seriously.”
As Israel presses on with its war in Gaza against Hamas in response to the October 7 attack, the UN vote allows the Palestinians to gauge support from other countries.
In December, 153 countries out of 193 backed a call for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza war. Ten voted against, including the United States, while 23 abstained.
– with AFP
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