The UN general assembly has voted with overwhelming support to back full Palestinian membership in the UN. The vote tallied out to 143-9 with 25 delegates refusing to vote.
The Israeli envoy to the U.N. Immediately denounced the resolution and those who supported the bid for membership during the vote. The Palestinian Envoy played on the current threat faced in Rafah by the IDF.
Palestinian statehood and U.N. Membership is a tricky question - there are two separate governing entities in two separate places that both claim to be “Palestine”
You have Hamas as the sole governing authority in the Gaza Strip, which claims to be Palestinian territory, and then you have the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank that controls areas “a” and has joint control over areas “b” in tandem with the Israeli government.
Which begs the question, the first being, Palestinians exist, and surely deserve representation of some sort, but which Palestinian “state” is the real Palestinian state?
Are either governments even fit to represent the people that they govern? The PA is largely made up of political factions that derive from terrorist organizations of the 1970’s - 90’s, primarily groups splintering from the PLO. Hamas is presently an active terrorist organization.
The Israeli envoy was so disgruntled with the vote, that he held up a copy of the U.N. Charter and told his colleagues that they were shredding it.
“You are shredding the UN charter with your own hands. Yes, yes, that’s what you’re doing. Shredding the UN charter. Shame on you.” He said.
The Palestinian Envoy, Riyad Mansour rebutted by saying, “As we speak, 1.4 million Palestinians in Rafah wonder if they will survive the day and wonder where to go next. There is nowhere left to go, - I have stood hundreds of times before at this podium, often in tragic circumstances, but none comparable to the ones my people endured today … never for a more significant vote than the one about to take place, a historic one.”
