In a vote of 12 in favour to one against, with two abstentions, the Council did not adopt a draft resolution that would have recommended the General Assembly to hold a vote with the broader UN membership to allow Palestine to join as a full UN Member State.
Palestine Fails to Get Full UN Membership Due to US Veto
New Delhi (ABC Live): In a
vote of 12 in favour to one against, with two abstentions, the Council did not
adopt a draft resolution that would have recommended the General Assembly to
hold a vote with the broader UN membership to allow Palestine to join as a full
UN Member State.
The draft resolution is among the shortest in the
Council’s history: “The Security Council, having examined the application of the State
of Palestine for admission to the United Nations (S/2011/592), recommends to
the General Assembly that the State of Palestine be admitted to membership in
the United Nations.”
For a draft resolution to pass, the Council must have at
least nine members in favour and none of its permanent members – China, France,
Russia, United Kingdom, United States – using their veto power.
Amid the ongoing war in Gaza, Palestine had submitted a
request to the Secretary-General on 2 April, asking that a 2011 request to
become a UN Member State be reconsidered.
In 2011, the Security Council considered the request but
was not able to find unity in sending a recommendation to the General Assembly,
which according to the UN Charter must hold
a vote involving its 193 Member States.
Earlier this month, the Security Council sent the latest
request to its Committee on the Admission of Member States, which met on 8 and
11 April to discuss the matter.
Palestine has been a Permanent Observer at the UN since
2012, before which it was an observer in the UN General Assembly.
Palestine’s
current status
Right now, Palestine is a
“Permanent Observer State” at the UN, enjoying the status that allows it to
participate in all of the Organization’s proceedings, except for voting on
draft resolutions and decisions in its main organs and bodies, from the Security Council to
the General Assembly and its six main committees.
However, some other participation
is off-limits to Permanent Observers. This was made clear by a General Assembly
resolution, which temporarily, for the year 2019 during which
Palestine served as chair of the Group of 77 developing countries and China
(G77), accorded to Palestine additional rights: to submit proposals and
amendments and introduce them, to exercise a right of reply and to raise
procedural motions, including points of order and requests to put proposals to
the vote. These rights temporarily accorded to Palestine then expired as
of 2020.
On 2 April 2024, Palestine sent
the UN Secretary-General a letter requesting renewed consideration be given to
the application of Palestine for admission to membership in the UN, a request
originally submitted in 2011. Upon receipt of the request, the UN chief
forwarded it to the Security Council, which on 8 April took up the matter in an
open meeting.
The process is a continuation of what happened in September
2011, when the Palestinian President sent a letter with
the application request for UN membership to the UN chief, who promptly sent the application to the Security
Council and the General Assembly. In accordance with the Council’s provisional
rules of procedure, the Security Council referred the matter to its Committee
on Admission of New Members, where members deliberated but were not unanimous
on approving the request.