Palestinian Authority Submits Bid for Full UN Membership

April 3, 2024

by: JNS

Wednesday, 3 April 2024 | The Palestinian Authority [PA] submitted a request on Tuesday for the United Nations Security Council [UNSC] to vote this month on accepting the entity as a full member.

In a letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, PA UN envoy Riyad Mansour asked that an application submitted in 2011 be reconsidered. Another supporting letter was sent to Maltese diplomat Vanessa Frazier, who is currently serving as president of the 15-member council. That letter included the names of 140 countries that have recognized a Palestinian state.

However, the US is expected to block the bid due to Washington’s long-standing policy that UN membership will only come as a result of a negotiated bilateral agreement between Israel and the Palestinians.

“Our position has not changed,” US deputy ambassador Robert Wood told reporters Tuesday, as quoted by the Associated Press.

It was reported in February, however, that the Biden administration was considering unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state, which if true, would mark a major foreign policy shift.

Mansour said on Monday that he hoped the UNSC would make a decision at an April 18 meeting on the Middle East, and Frazier told reporters on Monday that the council’s standing committee for new members, which includes all 15 UNSC members, is expected to meet privately to consider the application.

In his letter, Mansour claimed Ramallah’s 2011 membership application was still pending because the UNSC never made a formal decision on the matter. The PA currently holds UN observer status.

For the PA to gain full UN member-state status, at least nine of the 15 council members must approve the application, and then two-thirds of the UN General Assembly would have to support it in a vote.

There is widespread opposition to the establishment of a Palestinian state in Israel, particularly after Hamas’s October 7 massacre.

Nearly two-thirds (66%) of Israeli Jews oppose the creation of a Palestinian state, while 27% support it, according to this year’s “Peace Index” survey released by Tel Aviv University.

On February 21, the Israeli Knesset [parliament] voted 99–11 to back the government’s decision to reject any unilateral recognition of “Palestine.” All coalition lawmakers and most members of the Zionist opposition parties voted in favor of supporting a Cabinet statement rejecting “international diktats regarding a permanent settlement with the Palestinians.”

Palestinian polls suggest that 89% of Palestinians support establishing a government that includes or is led by Hamas, which seeks to destroy Israel in its entirety and replace it with a Palestinian Islamic state.

Posted on April 3, 2024

Source: (This article originally published by the Jewish News Syndicate on April 3, 2024. Time-related language has been modified to reflect our republication today. See original article at this link.)

Photo Credit: Mark Garten/UN Photo/jns.org