UN votes symbolically in favour of Palestinian membership
UNITED NATIONS, United
States: The United Nations General Assembly voted overwhelmingly on Friday to grant the Palestinians some additional rights in the global body, after their drive for full membership was blocked by the United States.
“I have stood hundreds of times before at this podium, but never for a more significant vote than the one about to take place, an historic one,” Palestinian ambassador to the UN Riyad Mansour said before the vote, his voice full of emotion.
He added, “The day will come where Palestine will take its rightful place among the community of free nations.”
Israel reacted angrily, with its UN ambassador, Gilad Erdan, saying the resolution made him sick.
“With this new precedent, we may see here representatives of ISIS or Boko Haram that will sit among us,” Erdan said, referring to two jihadist groups.
He said it would give “the rights of a state to an entity that is already partly controlled by terrorists, and will be replaced by a force of child-murdering Hamas rapists.”
US deputy ambassador to the UN Robert Wood called the resolution “an unproductive text.”
While “our vote does not reflect opposition to Palestinian statehood,” Wood said after the resolution passed, “it remains the US view that unilateral measures at the UN and on the ground will not advance this goal.”