UN General Assembly backs Palestinian bid for membership

The U.N. General Assembly voted by a wide margin on May 10 to grant new “rights and privileges” to Palestine and called on the United Nations Security Council to favourably reconsider its request to become the 194th member of the United Nations. The 193-member world body approved the Arab and Palestinian-sponsored resolution by a vote of 143-9 with 25 abstentions.

U.S. Deputy Ambassador Robert Wood made clear on May 9 that the Biden administration opposed the resolution. The United States was among the nine countries voting against it, along with Israel.

“We’ve been very clear from the beginning there is a process for obtaining full membership in the United Nations, and this effort by some of the Arab countries and the Palestinians is to try to go around that,” Mr. Wood said May 9. “We have said from the beginning the best way to ensure Palestinian full membership in the U.N. is to do that through negotiations with Israel. That remains our position.”