MEMBERS of the UN Security Council have failed to reach a consensus on the Palestinian bid to become a full member state of the United Nations.
Two-thirds of the council’s members were in favour of full Palestinian membership, but ‘there was no consensus’ during the closed-door meeting held on Thursday, said Maltese Ambassador Vanessa Frazier, who holds the council’s rotating presidency for April.
The US ruling class is the main opponent of Palestinian statehood, with the UK acting as its ‘running dog’, arguing that the United Nations is not the place for deciding the status of Palestine, which it says should be the result of an agreement between Israel and the Palestinians.
Last week, Palestinians revived a 2011 application for full UN membership, which would be a recognition of Palestinian statehood.
This prompted the Security Council to launch a formal review process through the ad hoc committee, which was composed of the council’s member states and met on Thursday.
The Biden administration has indicated that it opposes the renewed Palestinian bid to obtain full-member state status.
‘We have always made clear that, while we support the establishment of an independent Palestinian state… that is something that should be done through direct negotiations through the parties — something we are pursuing at this time — and not at the United Nations,’ State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said during a press briefing.
US opposition to the initiative in the UN Security Council would block it, given that Washington has veto power.
Palestine has been recognised as a ‘non-member observer state’ of the UN since 2012.
After the Thursday meeting, a more formal council vote is expected. AFP says that a vote could be held on April 18, brought forth by Algeria which represents Arab nations on the Security Council.
Even if the bid were to receive the necessary nine of 15 votes, observers predict as a certainty, a veto from Israel’s staunch ally, the United States.
‘All we ask for is to take our rightful place among the community of nations,’ Palestinian UN envoy Riyad Mansour told reporters earlier this week.
The Israeli atrocities in Gaza has massively increased support for the Palestinians worldwide, with millions demanding recognition of the State of Palestine.
Spain is set to lobby EU partners to recognise the Palestinian state and Australia supports Palestinian statehood
On Friday, Australian Foreign Minister, Penny Wong, defended her remarks that she made earlier this week, that were taken that Australia could recognise the state of Palestine statehood in the near-term.
She said that the Palestinian statehood is the ‘only pathway to enduring peace in the region’.
On Wednesday, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said that Spain is ‘ready to recognise the Palestinian state’.
‘The international community can’t help the Palestinian state if it doesn’t recognise its existence,’ said Sanchez during a parliamentary debate. He added that recognising Palestine is ‘what’s just, and what’s demanded by the social majority’ and is ‘in Europe’s geopolitical interest’.
Ireland is also pushing for recognition of Palestinian rights, with Taoiseach Simon Harris advocating for the Palestinian State.
‘I believe different member states will adopt different positions in relation to recognising the state of Palestine. But Ireland won’t be waiting for that to be a European approach,’ he said in a meeting with European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen in Brussels on Thursday.
‘Ireland wishes to recognise the state of Palestine, I’d like to do that with a number of other countries,’ he said.
There is no doubt that now is the time to establish the State of Palestine. In fact there is not a moment to lose.
World-wide, the major trade unions, including the giant US, UK–TUC and EU trade unions, must now take indefinite strike action to secure international recognition of the State of Palestine, from the river to the sea, with Jerusalem as its capital, and with all Palestinians having the right to return.
UK workers must demand that the TUC takes the lead and immediately calls a general strike to give full support to Palestine and to gain international recognition and the right to return for all Palestinians.
