The UN General Assembly has passed a resolution recognizing Palestine as qualified to become a full member of the United Nations, and recommending that the Security Council "reconsider the matter favorably."
The green light from the Security Council (where the US vetoed last month) is a necessary condition for any full approval. The text obtained 143 votes in favour, 9 against and 25 abstentions.
Among the abstentions were Italy together with Germany and the United Kingdom but also Albania, Bulgaria, Austria, Canada, Croatia, Fiji, Finland, Georgia, Latvia, Lithuania, Marshall Island, Holland, North Macedonia, Moldova, Paraguay, Romania, Vanuatu, Malawi, Monaco, Ukraine, Sweden and Switzerland.
The nine countries that voted against are the USA, Israel, Palau, Nauru, Micronesia, Papua New Guinea, Hungary, Argentina and Czechoslovakia.
“You have opened the United Nations to modern Nazis,” commented the Israeli ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan. “This day will be remembered in infamy,” he added, speaking of a “Palestinian terrorist state that would be led by the Hitler of our times.” “You are tearing the UN Charter to pieces with your hands,” he said, passing some pages of the document through a paper shredder.
(Unioneonline/D)