IANS | 19 Apr, 2024
An isolated US has shot down Palestine's bid to get full UN
membership using its veto at the Security Council undermining the
keystone of a two-nation solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict.
The
veto nullified the votes of 12 countries in the 15-member Security
Council on Thursday to upgrade Palestine from an observer to a full
member. The UK and Switzerland abstained.
Officially, it was a
revival of the application Palestine made in 2011, which did not make
headway then and was banished to limbo.
A two-state solution to the Palestine-Israel crisis would require the recognition of Palestine as a nation.
Algeria,
an elected member of the Security Council -- and its only Arab nation,
sponsored the resolution for Palestine's full membership even though the
Security Council committee on membership reported that there was no
unanimity on the matter.
"This is our legal duty, a political
duty and a security duty," Foreign Minister Ahmad Attaf said earlier, "a
duty at the scale of humanity and civilisation".
The votes it
garnered were a sign of hope despite the defeat, Algeria's Permanent
Representative Amar Bendjama said after the voting.
"We will return, stronger and more vocal, and we will be back (with) overwhelmingly majority of the General Assembly," he said.
Explaining
the US veto, Deputy Permanent Representative Robert Wood asserted his
country supports a two-nation solution with Israel and Palestine as
independent nations side-by-side but the time was not now.
"President
(Joe) Biden has been clear that sustainable peace in the region can
only be achieved through a two-state solution, with Israel’s security
guaranteed," he said, and that his country "has worked vigorously and
with determination to support Palestinian statehood in the context of a
comprehensive peace agreement that would permanently resolve the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict".
But Palestine has not met the
threshold for statehood because, for example, "Hamas -- a terrorist
organisation -- is currently exerting power and influence in Gaza, an
integral part of the state envisioned in this resolution", he said.
Reacting
to the veto, Palestine's Permanent Observer Ryad Mansour said, "The
people of Palestine will not disappear. We will not disappear. The
people of Palestine will not be buried."
Russia's Permanent Representative Vasily Nebenzia said the US veto "will not stop the course of history".
UK's
Permanent Representative Barbara Woodward said her country abstained
"because we must keep our focus on securing an immediate pause in order
to get aid in and hostages out".
Earlier during an open meeting
of the Security Council on the Palestine-Israel conflict,
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed support for Palestine
nationhood, without directly taking a stand on the issue before the
Security Council.
He told the Security Council that to resolve the
Palestine conflict, "the ultimate goal remains a two-state solution --
Israel and Palestine living side-by-side in peace and security".
Palestine
Authority's Special Envoy Ziad Abu Amr said that giving Palestine full
membership "will open wide prospects before a true peace based on
justice".
Israel's Permanent Representative Gilad Erdan countered,
"The only thing that a forced unilateral recognition of a Palestinian
state will do is to make any future negotiation almost impossible."
Pointing
to the divisions among the Palestinians he asked, "Who is the council
voting to 'recognize' and give full membership status to? Hamas in Gaza?
The Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Nablus?"
If the membership
application had cleared the Security Council, it would have required the
votes of two-thirds of the General Assembly, which is guaranteed
because 138 of the 193 UN members recognise Palestine.
India
recognised Palestine as a state in 1988 and was one of the co-sponsors
of the 2012 General Assembly resolution giving Palestine the status of
an observer state without voting rights after its application for full
membership failed the previous year.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and former President Pranab Mukherjee have visited Palestine sealing the recognition.
The
Biden Administration, under pressure from sections of his Democratic
Party critical of his support for Israel, tried to avoid a veto by
trying to get more members to abstain so that the membership resolution
would fail without the minimum nine votes.
Based on leaked recent
State Department cables, the intercept said that the US lobbied Security
Council members against supporting Palestine's membership.
The efforts were directed particularly against France, Security Council President Malta and Ecuador. They didn't succeed.