The United Nations General Assembly is expected to support a Palestinian attempt to become a full UN member by recognizing it as qualified and returning the application to the UN Security Council to “reconsider the matter favorably”.
The Palestinians are renewing their effort to become full UN members, which would effectively establish a Palestinian state after the US blocked it in the 15-member UN Security Council last month.
The vote by the 193-member General Assembly on Friday will serve as a global survey of support for the Palestinians.
An application to become a full UN member must first be approved by the Security Council, followed by the General Assembly.
However, while the General Assembly alone cannot grant full UN membership, the draft resolution up for a vote on Friday will grant Palestinians some additional rights and privileges beginning in September 2024, such as a seat in the assembly hall, but it will not be voted on by the body.
Diplomats believe the draft text will garner the necessary support to be adopted. The Palestinian push for full UN membership comes seven months into Israel’s devastating war on Gaza, and as Israel expands settlements in the occupied West Bank, which the UN considers illegal.
The Palestinians are now a non-member observer state, a de facto acknowledgment of statehood conferred by the UN General Assembly in 2012.
