New Delhi: India on Friday supported a draft resolution proposed by the UN General Assembly that stated that Palestine is eligible to join the UN as a full member and suggested that the Security Council look into the issue.
The 193-member UN General Assembly met in the morning for an emergency special session where the Arab Group resolution Admission of new Members to the United Nations, in support of the State of Palestine’s full membership in the UN, was presented by the United Arab Emirates, as Chair of the Arab Group in May. The resolution got 143 votes in favour which also included India, nine countries against and 25 absentees. The UNGA hall broke into applause after the vote was cast.
The resolution stated that the Palestinian state is qualified for membership in the United Nations by Article 4 of the Charter of the United Nations and “should therefore be admitted to membership in the United Nations. It recommended that the Security Council reconsider the matter favourably, in light of this determination.
India was the first non-Arab state to recognize the Palestinian liberation organization as the sole and legitimate representation of the Palestinian people in 1974. India was also one of the first countries to recognise the State of Palestine in 1988 and 1996, Delhi opened its Representative Office to the Palestine Authority in Gaza, which was later shifted to Ramallah in 2003.
Earlier this month, India’s Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Ruchira Kamboj had said “While Palestine’s application for membership at the UN was not approved by the Security Council because of the veto in the UNSC, I would like to state here at the very outset that in keeping with India’s long-standing position, we hope that this would be reconsidered in due course and that Palestine’s endeavour to become a member of the United Nations will get endorsed”.
The State of Palestine will be granted extra rights and privileges of participation as of the 79th session of the General Assembly, which is scheduled to start in September of this year, according to an appendix to the resolution. The rights of members of the State of Palestine delegation to be elected as officers in the plenary and main committees of the General Assembly, the right to speak on behalf of a group, including representatives of major groups, the right to be seated among member states in alphabetical order, and the right to fully and actively participate in UN conferences and international conferences and meetings held under the General Assembly’s auspices are among them.
Palestine cannot run for office in UN bodies or cast a ballot in the General Assembly while it is an observer state. Palestine wrote to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in April, pleading for a reconsideration of its candidacy for full UN membership. A state’s application for full UN membership must be accepted by the Security Council as well as the General Assembly, where admission as a full member requires the vote of a two-thirds majority of the members present.
A resolution in the Security Council about the Palestinian bid for full membership in the UN was rejected by the US last month. A draft resolution that would have proposed to the 193-member UN General Assembly that the State of Palestine be accepted as a member of the UN was put to a vote by the 15-nation Council.
With the US exercising its veto and Switzerland and the UK abstaining, the motion received 12 votes in favour. The proposed resolution needed the support of nine Council members to pass, and none of the Council’s five permanent members—China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States—could veto it.
The UN General Assembly designated Palestine as a non-member observer state in 2012. With this status, Palestine can attend international meetings but not vote on resolutions. The only other non-member observer state at the UN is the Holy See, which speaks for the Vatican.
