As a result of the ongoing carnage in the Gaza Strip and the inability of the international community to put an end to it, the Palestinians officially relaunched, on Tuesday April 2, their request for membership as a full member of the UN. Since 2012, they have only had an observer state seat within the international organization. The Palestinian ambassador in New York, Riyad Mansour, hopes that this request will be examined by the Security Council later this month, although it seems complicated for Washington, Israel’s historic ally, to be favorable to it. .
For several weeks, the rumor of this initiative had been buzzing in the corridors of the UN, but Riyad Mansour only made it official on Tuesday, in a letter to the Secretary General, in which he informed the latter of his desire to reactivate the process begun. in September 2011, which he considers still pending. At the United Nations, the Palestinians are sponsored by the Arab Group, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and the Non-Aligned Group.
“To date, one hundred and forty member states recognize the State of Palestine”, wrote the presidents of these three organizations to the president of the Security Council to support their request. The Ambassador of Malta, Vanessa Frazier, assured that she wanted to quickly check the procedure to follow.
Threat of American veto
Because, as required by the UN, the full accession procedure is technical: the Palestinians must first obtain a positive recommendation from the Security Council and the ad hoc committee. Once this has been obtained, it must be validated by a two-thirds majority vote at the General Assembly; and, finally, return to the Council for final confirmation. The most pessimistic think that the discussion will be blocked from the first part of the first stage, which takes place behind closed doors: within the Council’s membership committee.
The Palestinian Authority was blocked at this stage in the fall of 2011, when Benjamin Netanyahu was already Prime Minister of Israel. The procedure was never completed, because Barack Obama had threatened to veto it: the American president at the time argued that the two-state solution absolutely had to be negotiated between the Palestinian and Israeli leaders. Mahmoud Abbas therefore backtracked, settling for non-member observer state status, granted a few months later by a vote of the United Nations General Assembly.
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