That a hurricane was approaching was clear when the United States gave up on deciding before the vote in the UN on whether or not the right of Palestine to be a full member. His diplomacy knew that this was not his audience, and any argument would be an unheeded plea and a double failure. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield did not even attend. He ceded the isolationist testimony to alternate Robert Wood.
Yesterday, the General Assembly of the Organization of Nations made another moral and symbolic condemnation of the United States-Israel alliance, although this time it went a little further by granting rights to the Palestinians that they lacked until now.
A large majority of countries endorsed, with 143 votes, 9 against and 25 abstentions, that Palestine meets the requirements to be a member state.
The loneliness of the United States-Israel binomial was aggravated. This time only seven more countries agreed: Argentina, the Czech Republic, Hungary (strange, because its prime minister, Orbán, is an admirer of Russia, a great supporter of Palestine), Micronesia, Nauru, Palau and Papua New Guinea.
Although this pronouncement lacks legal value, it orders the matter to return to the Security Council, which is the decisive body and where Washington expressed its veto on April 18, an action that led to this Friday’s plenary. According to the document prepared by the Arab nations, with the support of other countries, such as Spain, the State of Palestine “is qualified for membership in the UN, in accordance with Article 4 of the Founding Charter, and therefore must be admitted as a member”.
Therefore, it recommends that the Security Council “reconsider the matter favorably”.
Ambassador Wood warned that “the result will be similar”. The US will veto it. “The best way to ensure that Palestine is a full member of the UN is through negotiations with Israel. This continues to be our position”, he emphasized when the vote was finished.
The agreement also offers more licenses and privileges to the Palestinians. The resolution allows them to have a seat with the members of the UN in the Assembly room, to appear as speakers in any matter, to make statements or, among other concessions, to raise questions or amendments.
The key factor is missing. It does not grant the right to vote in the organization or to present candidacies to the governing bodies of the United Nations (such as the Council), since it continues with the official status of an observer State.
The initial draft was much bolder, as it included this right to vote. The US lobbied hard to change this text, even threatening to withdraw funding from the UN. In this field, according to diplomatic sources, he counted on the collaboration of Russia and China. Moscow and Beijing are fervent supporters of the State of Palestine, but they weighed that bypassing the Council contravened the United Nations Charter and set a precedent that they could take advantage of troubling territories – Kosovo for Russia, Taiwan for China – and take this route.
The new rights will have to be implemented by António Guterres, secretary general of the organization. Faced with the possibility that, like other resolutions in which Israel disagrees, all of this will remain on wet paper, Monica Grayley, spokeswoman for the presidency of the Assembly, assured that time is available. “The resolution will be applied, it is the voice of the plenary”, he remarked.
The Palestinians want a state in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza, territories captured by Israel in the 1967 war with neighboring Arab states.
After an attempt in 2011, also frustrated by pressure from the United States, the claim has gained strength in recent months.
The context of this new situation is in the conflict that arose from October 7, when Hamas, whose statutes include eliminating Israel, attacked inside this country (1,200 dead and hundreds of hostages, more than 100 still held) and led to a massive retaliation by the Israeli army, with more than 35,000 dead and nearly two million displaced.
In the iconic hall of the UN, in the run-up to an unprecedented vote to establish the middle path, moments of emotion and shame overlapped.
“The Palestinian flag flies high, around the globe and at Columbia University,” proclaimed the Palestinian representative, Riyad Mansour, almost in tears. By the way, the flag of Palestine in Columbia was removed by the NYPD and replaced with the Stars and Stripes.
Mansour claimed the right to a Palestinian state that “cannot depend on Israel’s veto and is not negotiable”. And he assured those present that “you are making history and in the coming decades you will be proud of it”.
Gilard Erdan, Israel’s ambassador, accused countries of falling into the trap of “the new Hitlers” and graphically disparaged the United Nations.
He caused embarrassment by taking out a small paper shredder, in which he inserted the “yes” vote on Palestine and the booklet of the Charter with which the UN was created.
“Here I have another letter, it remains intact”, replied Farhan Haq, spokesman for the secretary general, to the insult. “As long as the organization exists – he added -, the Charter will exist”.
