Chang W. Lee/The New York Times
UNITED NATIONS — More than 130 countries voted on Thursday to grant Palestine the upgraded status of nonmember observer state in the United Nations, a stinging defeat for Israel and the United States and a boost for President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority, who was weakened by the recent eight days of fighting in Gaza.
The new ranking could make it easier for the Palestinians to pursue
Israel in international legal forums, but it remained unclear what
effect it would have on attaining what both sides say they want — a
two-state solution.
Still, the vote offered a showcase for an extraordinary international
lineup of support for the Palestinians and constituted a deeply symbolic
achievement for their cause, made even weightier by arriving on the
65th anniversary of the General Assembly vote that divided the former
British Mandate of Palestine into two states, one Jewish and the other
Arab — a vote that Israel considers the international seal of approval
for its birth.
In the West Bank city of Ramallah, about 2,000 Palestinians gathered to
celebrate in a central square named after the late Palestinian leader
Yasser Arafat. Security forces fired into the air and people applauded,
danced in the streets and honked car horns when the results were
broadcast to the crowd.
“We are witnessing exceptional moments after 65 years of injustice,
suffering and pain,” said Jibril Rajoub, the member of Fatah Central
Committee. “We are going to witness an Israeli American efforts to keep
this resolution ink on paper.”
The tally, in which 138 members voted yes, 9 voted no and 41 abstained,
took place after a speech by Mr. Abbas to the General Assembly, in which
he called the moment a “last chance” to save the two-state solution
amid a narrowing window of opportunity.
“The General Assembly is called upon today to issue a birth certificate
of the reality of the state of Palestine,” he said before the vote.
But in the run-up to the vote, he and Ron Prosor, the Israeli ambassador
to the United Nations, blamed the other side for not doing enough to
pursue peace.
”We have not heard one word from any Israeli official expressing any
sincere concern to save the peace process,” Mr. Abbas said.
“On the contrary, our people have witnessed, and continue to witness, an
unprecedented intensification of military assaults, the blockade,
settlement activities and ethnic cleansing, particularly in occupied
East Jerusalem, and mass arrests, attacks by settlers and other
practices by which this Israeli occupation is becoming synonymous with
an apartheid system of colonial occupation, which institutionalizes the
plague of racism and entrenches hatred and incitement.”
“The moment has arrived for the world to say clearly: enough of aggression, settlements and occupation,” he said.
Mr. Prosor, speaking after Mr. Abbas but before the vote was taken, said
the United Nations resolution would do nothing to advance the process.
“Today the Palestinians are turning their back on peace,” he said.
“Don’t let history record that today the U.N. helped them along on their
march of folly.”
As expected, the vote won backing from a number of European countries,
and was a rebuff to intense American and Israeli diplomacy. In an
indication of the bitterness of the blow to the Israelis, the office of
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu released a statement calling Mr.
Abbas’s speech “defamatory and venomous” that was “full of mendacious
propaganda against the IDF and the citizens of Israel.”
“Someone who wants peace does not talk in such a manner," the statement continued.
Among the countries that had forecast their yes votes were France, Spain
and Switzerland. Germany and the United Kingdom were among the
countries that abstained, and a few countries joined Israel and the
United States in voting no.
After the vote, Susan E. Rice, the American ambassador to the United
Nations, explained the American vote as a reaction to an “unfortunate
and counterproductive” resolution that placed “further obstacles in the
path to peace.”
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