Palestinian 'state' wins U.N. recognition

 

The United Nations General Assembly voted Thursday 138-9 with 41 abstentions to grant Palestine non-member state status, a symbolic move that Israel and the USA warned would make

peace more difficult.
The UN General Assembly on Thursday voted overwhelmingly to recognize Palestine as a non-member state, giving a major diplomatic triumph to President Mahmud Abbas despite fierce opposition from the United States and Israel.
"We are here for a final serious attempt to achieve peace," Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas told General Assembly delegates before the vote. "Not to end the negotiation processâ?¦ rather to breathe new life into the negotiation process."
In his remarks Abbas said he "did not come here to de-legitimize a state established years ago, that is Israel." He then lashed out at Israel, blaming it for a lack of peace in the region and alleging it conducted "ethnic cleansing" in Gaza in its air campaign against rocket fire aimed it Israeli cities and towns.
The 193-member assembly voted 138-9 with 41 abstentions for the resolution which enables the Palestinians to join UN agencies and sign international treaties.
The vote was seen by observers as a major defeat for the United States and Israel, as Abbas won what he called a “birth certificate” for a Palestinian state.
Only nine countries voted against, including the United States, Israel and Canada. US allies Britain and Germany were among 41 that abstained, and France led a group of European powers backing the Palestinian bid.
Abbas embraced his foreign minister at the UN headquarters in New York while thousands of Palestinians celebrated with bursts of gunfire and cheers in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
But, underlining the bitter divisions that have stalled the Middle East peace process, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office condemned what it called a “venomous” speech by the Palestinian leader.
The vote lifts the Palestinian Authority from an observer entity to a “non-member observer state” on a par with the Vatican.
Palestine has no vote on the General Assembly but is able to join UN agencies and potentially the International Criminal Court (ICC), a possible avenue to mount legal challenges against Israeli actions.

The Palestinian leadership says, however, that it wants to use the “historic” vote as a launchpad for renewed direct talks with Israel, which have been frozen for more than two years.
Abbas called the resolution “the last chance to save the two-state solution.”
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