The Palestinian’s Ludicrous Bid for Full UN Membership is Denied for Now

On April 18^th, Algeria, a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, submitted a draft resolution recommending to the General Assembly that Palestine be admitted to the UN as a full member state. It is currently an observer state with no voting powers. Fortunately, the Biden administration showed some backbone this time and exercised its veto power to prevent the draft resolution from passing. Twelve countries voted in favor of the resolution. France disgraced itself as one of the countries voting in favor of the Palestinians’ bid for full UN membership. Two countries, the United Kingdom and Switzerland, abstained.

The United States representative to the UN expressed the U.S.’s support for a two-state solution as part of a comprehensive peace agreement emerging from direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. He said, however, that “premature actions” at the UN will not achieve true statehood for the Palestinian people, adding that there were questions whether the Palestinians had met the new membership criteria outlined in Article 4 of the UN Charter. More needed to be done, he added, to help establish the attributes demonstrating the Palestinians’ readiness for an independent state of their own that is deserving of full membership in the UN.

Article 4 of the UN Charter reads as follows: “Membership in the United Nations is open to all other peace-loving states which accept the obligations contained in the present Charter and, in the judgment of the Organization, are able and willing to carry out these obligations.”

One of those obligations is “to refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations.” (Article 2.4)

Palestinians presently lack the basic rudiments of a genuine state

The terrorist organization Hamas, which has governed the Gaza Strip since 2007, is anything but “peace-loving,” as proven most recently on October 7^th when it invaded Israel and conducted a massacre of the most Jews in one day since the Holocaust. Israel did not start the war that is now engulfing Gaza. Hamas did. No entity trying to pass itself off as a legitimate state entitled to full UN membership should be taken seriously when a genocidal terrorist organization is governing territory that is supposed to be part of that state. 

In any event, the Palestinians presently lack the basic rudiments of a genuine state. And that is not because Israel is occupying land the Palestinians claim as their own. It is because of the deep division within the Palestinian community itself that prevents the establishment of a unified government in control of both the West Bank and Gaza.

There are two Palestinian governments--the Palestinian Authority, dominated by the Fatah faction, in the West Bank, and Hamas in Gaza. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party and the Iran-backed terrorist organization Hamas fought each other for control of Gaza after Israel withdrew unilaterally in 2005 and have not reconciled since. This stalemate is unlikely to change unless Israel succeeds in eliminating Hamas’ control of Gaza or the Hamas terrorists survive in Gaza and succeed in seizing control of the West Bank as well.

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Palestinian Authority President Abbas condemned the U.S. veto of the Security Council resolution

Palestinian Authority President Abbas condemned the U.S. veto of the Security Council resolution backing the Palestinian bid for admission to the UN as a full member state. “The United States has violated international laws and forsaken all commitments to the two-state solution and peace efforts in the region,” Abbas said.

Abbas has no shame. He and other leaders of the Palestinian Authority try to project a “moderate” image to Western audiences, but to their own people and Arab audiences they have made clear their rejection of Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state. They renounce the “Jewish State” part of the original UN two-state solution partition resolution, which they have cited in justification of the admission of Palestine to the UN as a full member state.

The Palestinian Authority and Hamas have one overriding goal in common--the destruction of the Jewish State of Israel. The difference is the means they prefer to use to achieve that goal. Hamas relies solely on violence. 

Abbas and his Palestinian Authority comrades would prefer to bring about Israel’s end through deceptive diplomatic means

Abbas and his Palestinian Authority comrades would prefer to bring about Israel’s end through deceptive diplomatic means, if possible, including their manipulation of public opinion and international forums, especially the UN. However, they would resort to the use of force if their demands for the “right of return” to pre-June 1967 Israel and for maximalist boundaries at the expense of Israel’s security are not met.

Facts, international law, and basic morality all point to rejecting outright the Palestinians’ blatant attempt to pose as a legitimate state eligible for admission to the UN as a full member. They failed this time, but the Palestinians will most certainly come back to the Security Council to re-apply for full UN membership as often as necessary until they get their way.

The Palestinians know that they can count on the support of many current members of the United Nations and of the UN bureaucracy itself. The United Nations operates in a parallel universe where lies are made to look like the truth and evil is made to look good.

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