Antinuclear

Australia votes ‘yes’ at United Nations as Palestinian push for full membership gathers momentum

ABC News 11 May 24

• In short: A Palestinian bid for full membership of the United Nations gathered momentum on Friday, after a resolution passed through the organisation’s General Assembly recognising it was qualified to join.
• A total of 143 nations — including Australia — voted in favour, while nine were against and 25 abstained.
• What’s next? The vote doesn’t grant the Palestinians full membership, but they have been given extra “rights and privileges”.

Australia voted “yes” and the United Nations General Assembly emphatically supported a Palestinian bid to become a full member of the organisation by recognising it as qualified to join.

The vote, held at the UN’s New York headquarters on Friday, local time, passed with 143 nations in favour and nine against — including the United States and Israel — while 25 countries abstained.

The resolution was seen as a de facto step towards future Palestinian statehood.

The Palestinian push for full UN membership comes seven months into a war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.

While there is a Palestinian ambassador to the UN, they are considered an “observer”.

Australia, which had previously abstained from voting on a call for an immediate humanitarian truce in the war, voted “yes” on Friday.

It does not give the Palestinians full UN membership, but simply recognises them as qualified to join, and gives them more “rights and privileges”.

“We value this decision. And we thank Australia for this position,” said Omar Awadalla, the assistant minister for the United Nations from the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) that governs the West Bank.

“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.

“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.”

Full membership unlikely……………………………………………………… more https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-05-11/australia-votes-yes-at-un-for-more-palestinian-rights/103833838

May 11, 2024 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics international