No UN membership bid for now, says Palestine envoy

new york — The Palestinian ambassador at the United Nations said on Monday that the day will come when ‘obstacles’ in the Security Council to full UN membership for Palestine will be removed “but that day is not today.”

The main hurdle is the United States, a veto-wielding Security Council member which insists that the only way Palestine can gain full membership in the United Nations is after negotiating a peace deal with Israel.

“We disagree with them on that,” Ambassador Riyad Mansour told a group of journalists. “We believe that our statehood, and our admission, is an innate right for the Palestinian people ... to exercise it alone. It is not open for negotiation with anyone — nor will we ask for permission from anyone.” Mansour said the legal right for Palestine to be a full member of the United Nations was formalized in the 1947 General Assembly resolution that partitioned British-ruled Palestine into “independent Arab and Jewish states.”

Israel was accepted as a UN member, he said, and Palestine which “will continue fighting for that right.”

The Palestinians initially had observer status at the UN, but in 2012 the 193-member General Assembly raised their status to an “observer state,” giving Palestine a green light to join international organisations. Earlier this month, Palestine became chair of the largest voting bloc at the UN — the 134-nation Group of 77.

Mansour stressed that “negotiation is different than expressions of self-determination.”

He noted that America’s 13 colonies didn’t negotiate with England in 1776 when they declared independence, and Israel didn’t negotiate its independence declaration in 1948. —

We believe that our statehood, and our admission, is an innate right for the Palestinian people ... to exercise it alone. It is not open for negotiation with anyone — nor will we ask for permission from anyone Riyad Mansour, Palestinian

ambassador