New York: Europe and the Arabs
The United States of America used its veto power against an Algerian draft resolution recommending that the General Assembly accept the State of Palestine as a member of the United Nations. 12 of the 15 Council members voted in favor of the resolution, the United States opposed it, and the United Kingdom and Switzerland abstained from voting. according to what was stated in the daily news bulletin of the United Nations, a copy of which we received this Friday morning.
Ahead of the vote, Algerian Ambassador Ammar Ben Jama said that accepting full membership for Palestine was a crucial step “towards correcting a long-standing injustice,” and said it was the least that could be done “to fulfill the debt we owe to its people” and would represent a clear signal that the international community stands to Palestine side.
He added: "This historical injustice must be addressed and the scales of justice rebalanced."
He said that Palestine's admission to the United Nations would strengthen and not undermine the two-state solution, "which the occupation authorities continue to stand openly against, and would constitute a rejection of their attempt to erase the Palestinian people and destroy the Palestinian state and all prospects for peace."
Following the vote, the Algerian ambassador confirmed that the Council's "overwhelming support" for the request sends a clear message that "the State of Palestine deserves its rightful place among the members of the United Nations."
He promised that his country would return to the Council “stronger and louder” with the support of the “overwhelming majority in the General Assembly,” and expressed hope that those who were unable to support acceptance of the State of Palestine today “will have to do so next time.”
On 2 April, Palestine sent the Secretary-General of the United Nations a letter requesting renewed consideration of its application for membership in the United Nations, a request originally submitted in 2011. After receiving the application, the Secretary-General referred it to the Security Council, which took up the issue in April 8 in open session
Yesterday, April 18, the Council met to vote on the draft resolution submitted by Algeria in this regard. Although the resolution received a majority of the Council members, the use of a veto by the United States, one of the five permanent members of the Council, prevented the resolution from being adopted.
The permanent members are: Russia, China, France, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Russia
After the vote, Russian Ambassador to the United Nations Vasily Nebenzia said that after the United States used its veto power “for the fifth time” since the beginning of the escalation in Gaza, “the Americans once again showed what they really believe in toward the Palestinians. For Washington, they (the Palestinian people) do not deserve to They will have a state of their own. They are merely an obstacle in the way of achieving Israel’s interests.”
The Russian ambassador added that the goal is to "break the will of the Palestinians to force them, at once and forever, to submit to the occupying power, and to turn them into servants and second-class people," and perhaps force them to leave forever from their original lands.
He pointed out that "Washington itself will be permanently removed from the list of peace-loving and respectable countries after sharing full responsibility with its Israeli allies for the killing of tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians."
United State
After using his veto against the Algerian draft resolution, Robert Wood, the US Deputy Ambassador to the United Nations, said that there was no consensus among the members of the “Committee for Admission of New Members” as to whether the applicant met the criteria for membership, as stipulated in Article IV of the Charter of Nations. United.
He added: “We have long called on the Palestinian Authority to undertake the necessary reforms to help define the characteristics of readiness for statehood, and we note that Hamas, a terrorist organization, currently exercises power and influence in Gaza, and is an integral part of the state envisioned in this resolution. For these reasons, The United States voted against the Security Council resolution.” He said that his country continues its strong support for the two-state solution.
France
After France voted in favor of the draft resolution, French Deputy Ambassador Nathalie Broadhurst said that the time has come to achieve a political settlement to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on the basis of a two-state solution.
She explained that her country supports Algeria's initiative to raise Palestine's status in the United Nations and accept it as a full member, stressing the need for this recognition to allow the resumption of a decisive and irreversible process to implement the two-state solution and strengthen the Palestinian Authority so that it is able to exercise its responsibilities effectively and efficiently throughout the territory of the future Palestinian state. .
The French delegate explained that the conflict in Gaza shows how important it is for the Security Council to be firmly committed to reaching a political solution to the conflict while at the same time strengthening its humanitarian work.
Palestine
Riyad Mansour, the Permanent Observer of the State of Palestine to the United Nations, affirmed that the Palestinians’ right to self-determination is a natural, historical and legal right “to live in our homeland of Palestine as an independent, free, sovereign state,” and that it is a right that cannot be postponed, suspended, is not subject to statute of limitations, and is not subject to any control, domination, or condition. Especially by Israel.
He stressed that Palestine's membership in the United Nations is an investment in peace, and does not detract from the rights of any member state and does not threaten or deny membership of any of them, stressing that "failing to adopt the resolution will not break our will, will not discourage us, and will not defeat our resolve."
He renewed the call for holding an international peace conference under multilateral international auspices aimed at ending the Israeli occupation and achieving the independence of the State of Palestine.
He stressed that the Palestinian people are a people who yearn for freedom, a decent life, and living in peace, and that they "will not disappear or disappear."
Israel
Israeli Ambassador Gilad Erdan thanked US President Joe Biden for “standing for truth and morality in the face of hypocrisy and politics” in vetoing the draft resolution. He said it was sad that most council members "decided to reward Palestinian terrorists with a Palestinian state," adding that their vote "will only encourage Palestinian rejection [of solutions] and make peace almost impossible."
Erdan said that during the three years he spent representing Israel at the United Nations, he repeated the same arguments over and over again, so he would not "try to fix what is already broken."