UNGA session on ‘rights and privileges’ for Palestine has started
A UN General Assembly (UNGA) session on a resolution about “rights and privileges” for Palestine that would call on the Security Council to favourably reconsider Palestine’s request to become the 194th member of the UN has begun.
Backing UNGA resolution to have ‘profound impact’ on future of Palestinians
Mohamed Abushahab, the United Arab Emirates’ ambassador to the UN, is addressing the General Assembly.
Here are some extracts from his speech:
- Today marks a defining moment in history.
- The draft resolution will have a profound impact on the future of the Palestinian people, a people who for more than 75 years have endured prosecution and denial of their most basic rights.
- The Palestinian people are a peace-loving nation and they deserve the opportunity to effectively serve humanity through the United Nations.
- The state of Palestine has demonstrated that it deserves its place in the international community and is entitled to full membership.
- As an international community, we have a responsibility to uphold the internationally agreed terms of reference for ending the conflict, most crucially the two-state solution based on the borders of June 4, 1967.
- Granting Palestine full membership in the United Nations will send a powerful message in support of the two-state solution.
- By voting in favour of today’s draft resolution you will demonstrate refusal to settle for anything less than upholding the legitimate rights of peoples and rejecting double standards.
‘If you do not support our freedom, you do not support peace’
Riyad Mansour, Palestinian ambassador to the UN, is addressing the UN General Assembly.
Here is some of what he has said:
- I stand before you as more than 35,000 Palestinians have been killed, 80,000 have been maimed, two million have been displaced, and everything has been destroyed.
- Israel’s plan has not changed: destroy and displace. The world is barely beginning to grasp the cruel and extensive nature of the actions against the Palestinian people.
- I stand before you as the Israeli prime minister is ready to kill thousands more to ensure his political survival.
- As we speak, 1.4 million Palestinians in Rafah wonder if they will survive today and where they will go next. There is nowhere left to go.
- We did not write the UN Charter. We did not enact international laws. We just demanded to see them applied to us and have until now been denied their protection.
- A yes vote is a vote for Palestinian existence, it not against any state, but it is against the attempts to deprive us of our state. That is why the Israeli government is so opposed to it, because they oppose our independence and the two-state solution altogether.
- If you do not support our freedom, you do not support peace.
- Your vote today of course says a lot about your solidarity with Palestine but also about who you are and what you stand for.
- It matters and I know an overwhelming majority of you will stand again with the Palestinian people in their hour of need and you will stand for just and lasting peace for the benefit of all.
- In simple words, voting “Yes” is the right thing to do and I can assure you, you and your country for years to come will be proud to have stood for freedom, justice and peace in this darkest hour.
- As everyone is saying, “Free Palestine, Free Palestine and peace for all.”
- And I repeat, free Palestine and vote “Yes” for the resolution.
The UN ‘is now welcoming a terror state into its ranks’: Erdan
Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, has addressed the UN General Assembly.
Here are some extracts from his speech:
- The United Nations was founded with the mission of ensuring such tyranny (Nazis) never raises its ugly head again. Today, you are about to do the exact opposite and advance the establishment of a Palestinian terror state, which will be led by the Hitler of our times.
- Today, with sick and twisted irony, the very body established to prevent evil is now welcoming a terror state into its ranks.
- In every poll, Hamas is predicted to win Palestinian elections, if they ever happen.
- So today, the General Assembly is not only about to grant the rights to a state of the Palestinian Authority, today, you are about to grant privileges and rights to the future terror state of Hamas.
UN General Assembly resolution passes
The resolution to expand Palestine’s rights at the UN has passed with overwhelming support: 143 countries voted in favour, nine voted against and 25 abstained.
Resolution’s passage with widespread support ‘significant’
One hundred and forty-three countries voting in favour of Palestine to getting more rights at the United Nations: That is significant.
What we were hearing before the vote was anywhere perhaps between 120, 130 – at top end, 140 – the fact that they got 143 meets and exceeds all expectations.
It’s overwhelmingly passed.
No votes: Argentina, Czechia, Hungary, Israel, Micronesia, Nauru, Papua New Guinea, USA
Abstained: Albania, Austria, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Fiji, Finland, Georgia, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Malawi, Marshall Islands, Monaco, The Netherlands, North Macedonia, Paraguay, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, United Kingdom, Vanuatu
Both my birth country and current country abstained, disappointing.
‘World stands with the Palestinian people’: Abbas welcomes UN vote
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas says Palestine will continue to push for full membership at the UN after today’s General Assembly vote. He said the resolution’s passage showed that the world stands with the rights and freedom of the Palestinian people, and against Israel’s occupation.
This is a historic day, but only diplomatically
Palestine has netted a victory at the United Nations, but this will not impact what is happening on the ground to Palestinians, says Al Jazeera’s senior political analyst Marwan Bishara.
“How will that weight on what’s happening in Gaza? It will probably not going to weigh in at all,” he said. “In fact, there is almost a negative correlation because the worst the situation is getting in Palestine, the better it is getting at the UN.”
Bishara said it was evident that most UN member states were going to vote in favour of the resolution, but that it was disappointing to see over two dozen abstentions, which did not make much sense due to overwhelming support for the resolution.
“I think a good number of votes were against the United States as much as they were for Palestine, and I think a good number of votes were abstaining under pressure from the United States.”
Bishara said the “hyperbolic, clownish” behaviour by the Israeli ambassador, who shredded a symbolic UN charter to demonstrate his opposition, did not help Israel.
Israel's Ambassador Gilad Erdan brought a small shredder and shredded the charter of the United Nations' charter during a speech before the UN assembly.
Indeed as he said, the general assembly has no power. Yet it further isolates Israel, the US and their few remaining allies on the world stage. Plus Gilad Erdan looks like an idiot. But I guess nice from the UN to still allow him there while openly attacking UN institutions, UNWRA in particular.
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