The Security Council revives the UN hopes of the Palestinian Authority. The US isn’t saying yet
UNITED NATIONS — The UN Security Council on Monday revived the Palestinian Authority’s hopes to join the United Nations as a full member.
But the United States said relations between Israel and the Palestinians are far from mature. That all but nullifies any hopes for Palestinian Authority membership at this point.
The US is one of five permanent members that can veto any action by the council. Members of her UN delegation reiterated Monday that the Palestinian Authority must exercise control over all Palestinian territories and negotiate statehood with Israel before it conquers the state.
“The issue of full Palestinian membership is a decision to be negotiated between Israel and the Palestinians,” US Deputy Ambassador Robert Wood told reporters on Monday.
After years of failed peace talks, Palestinians have turned to the United Nations to realize their dream of an independent state. Israel says such moves are an attempt to circumvent the negotiation process. Israel’s current right-wing government is dominated by hardliners who oppose the Palestinian state.
Supporters of the Palestinians’ bid for full membership of the United Nations asked the UN Security Council last week to revive the application for admission, submitted in 2011. The Palestinians’ new bid for UN membership comes as the war between Israel and Hamas began on October 1. 7 is approaching its sixth month and the unresolved decades-old Palestinian-Israeli conflict remains in the spotlight after years of being on the back burner.
Israel’s UN ambassador rejected any possibility of a Palestinian state and reduced the issue to one of his country’s ability to survive.
“Long before the creation of the UN, the Palestinians’ goal was clear: the destruction of the Jews,” Ambassador Gilad Erdan told reporters. The UN was founded in the aftermath of World War II and “the same genocidal ideology that this body was designed to combat still prevails among Palestinians,” he said.
The Security Council decided this month to make a formal decision on Palestinian UN membership, said Malta’s UN Ambassador Vanessa Frazier, the current president of the Security Council.
“This is another historic moment,” said Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian UN ambassador.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas presented the Palestinian Authority’s application to become the 194th member of the United Nations to then-Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on September 23, 2011, before addressing world leaders at the General Assembly.
“It was a historic moment then, and now that historic moment has been revived,” Mansour told reporters.