United Nations General Assembly To Vote On Palestine's Inclusion In UN Amid Staunch US Opposition

The UN General Assembly (UNGA) is set to vote today (10 May) on a resolution that would bestow new "rights and privileges" to Palestine and urge the Security Council to favourably reconsider its request to become the 194th member of the United Nations.

Last time a resolution of a similar nature was introduced at the UN, on 18 April, it was vetoed by the United States.

US Deputy Ambassador Robert Wood clarified on Thursday that the Joe Biden administration opposes the assembly resolution.

Under the UN Charter, prospective members of the United Nations must be "peace-loving", and the Security Council must recommend their admission to the General Assembly for final approval.

Palestine became a UN non-member observer state in 2012.

"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," Wood stated on Thursday.

He added "We have said from the beginning the best way to ensure Palestinian full membership in the UN is through negotiations with Israel. That remains our position."

The resolution is expected to pass with a large majority since there are no vetoes in the 193-member General Assembly.

This comes at a time when Hamas is at war with Israel, with the latter threatening a full-scale invasion of Rafah, a southern Gaza city where an estimated 1.2 million refugees have taken shelter.

Israel has already destroyed most of the northern part of Gaza with bombings and a ground campaign, which is estimated to have killed 34,000 civilians according to the health wing of the terrorist organisation Hamas.

This new draft has substantially altered its language to address the concerns of Russia and China.

This includes omitting mention of placing Palestine on an equal footing with other member states, and whether Palestine can vote on resolutions of the General Assembly.

According to the diplomats, Russia and China, which are staunch supporters of Palestine’s UN membership, were apprehensive that granting the list of rights and privileges detailed in an annex to the resolution could establish a precedent for other prospective UN members — with Russia concerned about Kosovo and China about Taiwan.

And to address Chinese and Russian concerns, the draft states that this inclusion will be done on an exceptional basis without setting a precedent.

Under longstanding US legislation, the United States is mandated to cut off funding to UN agencies that grant full membership to a Palestinian state — which could result in a cut-off in dues and voluntary contributions to the UN from its largest contributor.