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UN Security Council to vote on Palestinian membership on Friday
The vote has been scheduled in the 15-member council on Friday, diplomats tell the Reuters news agency. It is set to happen at 3pm (19:00 GMT). A draft resolution put forth by Algeria recommends to the 193-member UN General Assembly that “the State of Palestine be admitted to membership of the United Nations”, diplomats said.
The resolution needs at least nine votes in favour to pass the Security Council and no vetoes from the US, Britain, France, Russia or China. Diplomats told Reuters the measure could have the support of up to 13 council members, but the US is expected to block the effort because it would effectively recognise a Palestinian state.
The US, Israel’s top ally, has long maintained that establishing an independent Palestinian state should happen through direct negotiations between the Palestinians and Israel and not at the UN.
Palestinians are currently a non-member observer state at the UN.
No not the UN, USA decides who gets to be a state
Israel’s ambassador to UN condemns vote on Palestinian membership
Gilad Erdan, in a post on X, says the scheduled vote shows the UN Security Council is “investing its time in establishing a Palestinian terrorist state, at a time that is a huge reward for terrorism”.
He said any country that votes in favour of Palestinian membership “will prove that it only has foreign political considerations in mind and not any security or moral consideration”.
The Reuters news agency has reported that a draft resolution on full Palestinian membership will go to a vote on Friday. Palestinian officials have said full UN membership is needed to assure Palestinians are treated as “equals to other nations and states”.
The US is expected to use its veto to block the draft resolution.
Leaked memo highlights NYT’s ‘deference to Israeli narratives’: Report
A report by US news outlet The Intercept claims that editors at The New York Times have sent directives to reporters covering Israel’s ongoing assault on Gaza, asking them to restrict the use of certain terms.
These terms include “genocide”, “ethnic cleansing” and “occupied territory”, according to a copy of an internal memo obtained by The Intercept.
The memo reportedly also instructs journalists not to use the word Palestine “except in very rare cases” and to stay away from using the term “refugee camps” to describe certain areas of Gaza.
According to the report, several staffers told The Intercept that some of the memo’s contents “show evidence of the paper’s deference to Israeli narratives”.
Times spokesman Charlie Stadtlander told The Intercept that memos such as these are “standard practice” and provide guidance “to ensure accuracy, consistency and nuance”. “Across all our reporting, including complex events like this, we take care to ensure our language choices are sensitive, current and clear to our audiences.”
