Should Palestinians gain more rights at the UN? General Assembly to decide

The UN General Assembly is attempting to bypass the U.N. Charter by voting this Friday on a resolution that would grant the Palestinians certain privileges. This move comes after the Security Council turned down the Palestinians’ bid for full membership. The upcoming vote will likely reflect the international community’s stance on the Palestinian push for broader recognition as a state.

There are many things to keep in mind when talking about the United Nation resolution. UN Security Council view favorably Palestine State. And also claiming that it’s a “peace-loving” entity, which is required by the UN Charter.

But most of the people around the world disagree with it. Some may point out the fact that the Palestine Authority gives money to people for the violence act against Israel. Furthermore,the amount of money increases for those who commit severe crimes against Israel. Additionally there is Hamas that controls Gaza. This group carried out a brutal attack on October 7th and has said it plans to keep doing so whenever it can. All of these actions indicate that Palestine is not the peace-loving State. 

New proposal at the United Nation  that could change the game for the Palestinians, who aren’t officially U.N. members but have had “observer” status since 2012. Palestine may become more powerful with this proposal. 

Basically, if this goes through, the Palestinians would be able to do things like get elected to General Assembly committees, put forward their own ideas and changes, bring up procedural issues, and even sit among full U.N. members in alphabetical order. This is a big deal because no other non-member observer group—like the Holy See or the European Union—gets these privileges. It would mark a significant shift in how observer states are treated at the U.N.

Even though the Palestinians have some representation at the United Nations, they can’t vote in the General Assembly or run for big roles like the Security Council or the Economic and Social Council.

If the General Assembly changes its rule then they may become a member of the Human Rights Council. But one should make sure that this is simple because behind it alot of politics are involved. Additionally, the Human Rights Council is known for being quite critical of Israel.

Last month the US blocked a plan at the UN that would have given the Palestinians full membership. Algeria takes this plan forward. At the same time the UN membership committee disagreed with it and said it is not possible for Palestine to meet the requirements. Some nations also felt that Palestines had too many political issues like unstable government and divided leadership. 

Israel’s U.N. ambassador, Gilad Erdan, criticized the proposed resolution that would have allowed the Palestinians to become almost like full U.N. members. He said this goes against U.N. rules and would give them more status than they currently deserve. It seems there’s a lot of disagreement and tension over this issue.

According to Erdan, “ “If it is approved, I expect the United States to completely stop funding the UN and its institutions, in accordance with American law.”

According to United State law it is good for the government to stop helping the UN groups by giving money to it. This happened in 2011 when UNESCO, the U.N.’s cultural organization, made the Palestinians a full member, and the U.S. immediately cut off its funding to UNESCO.

According to Robert Wood, Washington deputy UN ambassador, “There is an established process for obtaining full membership, and our concern is that this may be an effort to go around the Security Council,” “We’ve made that very clear to council members, the Palestinians, so it will be up to them to decide what they want to do with it, but we’re very concerned with the precedent this type of resolution would set.”

The State Department’s leading diplomat for the Middle East expressed concern about ongoing efforts to grant Palestine a seat at the United Nations at the end of last month.

Additionally assistant Secretary of the State Barbara Leaf, said, “ “The effort to proffer membership to a state that doesn’t in fact exist—where the borders have not been delineated and a whole series of final-status issues have not been negotiated—simply makes no sense.”