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STORY: UN / PALESTINE MEMBERSHIP VOTE
TRT: 10:58
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ARABIC / ENGLISH / FRENCH / RUSSIAN / NATS
DATELINE: 18 APRIL 2024, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
FILE – NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, exterior, United Nations Headquarters
18 APRIL 2024, NEW YORK CITY
2. Various shots, Security Council voting
3. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Vasily Nebenzya, Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Russian Federation:
“Today's use of the veto by the US delegation is a hopeless attempt to stop the inevitable course of history. The results of the vote where Washington was practically in complete isolation, speak for themselves.”
4. Wide shot, Security Council
5. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Vasily Nebenzya, Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Russian Federation:
“At the same time, Washington will once and for all, remove itself from the list of peace loving and respected States having fully shared responsibility with Israeli allies for the deaths of tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians, and that is not worthy of a great power. And history will not forgive you for that. We call on the United States to listen to the voice of reason, to think about the consequences of their decisions and to immediately join in the efforts of the other members of the Security Council to establish an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.”
6. Wide shot, Security Council
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Robert A. Wood, Alternate Representative for Special Political Affairs at the United Nations, United States:
“The United States continues to strongly support a two-state solution. This vote does not reflect opposition to Palestinian statehood. But instead, is an acknowledgement that it will only come from direct negotiations between the parties.”
8. Wide shot, Security Council
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Robert A. Wood, Alternate Representative for Special Political Affairs at the United Nations, United States:
“It remains the US view that the most expeditious path towards statehood for the Palestinian people is through direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority with the support of the United States and other partners. We believe this approach can tangibly advance Palestinian goals in a meaningful and enduring way. We also believe in light of Iran's unprecedented and outrageous actions over the last week that Israel's neighbors will stand to benefit greatly from normalization. United States is committed to intensifying its engagement with the Palestinians and the rest of the region, not only to address the current crisis in Gaza but to advance a political settlement that will create a path to Palestinian statehood, and membership in the United Nations.”
10. Wide shot, Security Council
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Robert A. Wood, Alternate Representative for Special Political Affairs at the United Nations, United States:
“United States will continue to oppose unilateral measures that undermine the prospect of a two-state solution. This includes any actions that violate the principles that Secretary Blinken has emphasized for months, that Gaza cannot be a platform for terrorism. There should be no Israeli reoccupation of Gaza and the size of Gaza’s territory should not be reduced.”
12. Wide shot, Security Council
13. SOUNDBITE (English) Barbara Woodward, Permanent Representative of the United Kingdom to the United Nations
“We abstained on this resolution today because we must keep our focus on securing an immediate pause in order to get aid in and hostages out. Then making progress towards a sustainable ceasefire without a return to destruction, fighting and loss of life.”
14. Wide shot, Security Council
15. SOUNDBITE (French) Pascale Baeriswyl, Permanent Representative of Switzerland to the UN:
“Switzerland abstained on this draft resolution without opposing it, we believe that at the present time this is not appropriate for the particular situation given the ongoing conflict. We think it would be preferable to determine Palestinians membership at the United Nations at a future stage once there has been peace. This will not change the position of Switzerland, our strong position on a two-state solution, we believe that only a negotiated two-state solution for Israel and Palestine living side by side in security will lead to lasting peace between Israel and Palestine.”
16. Wide shot, Security Council
17. SOUNDBITE (English) Amar Bendjama, Permanent Representative of Algeria to the United Nations:
“We will return stronger and more vocal and we will be backed by the overwhelmingly majority of the General Assembly of the United Nations.”
18. Wide shot, Security Council
19. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Riyad Mansour, Permanent Observer to the United Nations, Palestine:
“Our right to self-determination is inalienable. It is not tied to a time or a timeframe. Our right is eternal, preeminence and continuous. It cannot be delayed. It cannot be suspended and it has no statute of limitations. It is important that this right not be subject to manipulation, or domination or conditions, especially not by Israel, the occupying power, the ethnic cleansing power, the genocidal power, the colonial power that is determined to evict our people from their homeland, to eliminate their identity and to replace their history and their culture and to uproot their present and their civilization and to besiege their future and their horizons.”
20. Wide shot, Security Council
21. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Riyad Mansour, Permanent Observer to the United Nations, Palestine:
“Will you give Israel the time it needs to annex Palestinian land? Will you give it the immunity to evict the people and kill them? Will you give Israel the weapons to kill more people? Will you give her, give Israel the right to veto our right to exist on our land? To veto the Palestinian state right to full membership in the United Nations?”
22. Wide shot, Security Council
23. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Riyad Mansour, Permanent Observer to the United Nations, Palestine:
“Please remember that once this session adjourns, in Palestine, there are innocents paying the price with their lives and the lives of their children, the price of this Israeli action, a price to the double standards, the blind bias towards Israel. The price for the delay in justice, freedom and peace.”
24. Wide shot, Security Council
25. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Riyad Mansour, Permanent Observer to the United Nations, Palestine:
“Our Palestinian people, wherever they are want life, they cling onto life. Just like the other peoples on this planet, the Palestinians are people who aspire to freedom, to a dignified life, to a peaceful existence. The people of Palestine will not disappear. The people of Palestine will not be buried. The Palestinian people have never been unnecessary. You either do us justice or you do it justice. We love life, to live in freedom and dignity in our national homeland. We will not disappear. Either you deal with us with fairness and give us our rights or give us rights.”
26. Wide shot, Security Council
27. SOUNDBITE (English) Gilad Erdan, Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Israel:
“I wish to begin by thanking the United States and particularly President Biden for standing up for truth and morality in the face of hypocrisy and politics.”
28. Wide shot, Security Council
29. SOUNDBITE (English) Gilad Erdan, Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Israel:
“I explained how the Palestinian Authority does not meet even the basic criteria, that they have no authority over their territory, and that the Palestinian Authority is a terror supporting entity. How can you say seriously that the Palestinians are peace loving? How? The Palestinians are paying terrorists, paying them to slaughter us. None of their leaders condemned terrorism nor the October 7 massacre. They call Hamas their brothers.”
30. Wide shot, Security Council
31. SOUNDBITE (English) Gilad Erdan, Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Israel:
“It’s very sad because your vote will only embolden Palestinian rejectionism even more and make peace almost impossible.”
32. Wide shot, Security Council
33. SOUNDBITE (English) Gilad Erdan, Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Israel:
“Speaking to this council is like speaking to a brick wall. I pray that the day will come and you will understand the magnitude of the mistake that you are making here. I pray that you will understand before it's too late.”
34. Various shots, Security Council
The Security Council rejected Palestine’s request for UN membership on Thursday (18 Apr), with the United States casting a veto.
In a vote of 12 in favour to one against, with two abstentions (United Kingdom, Switzerland), the Council did not adopt an Algerian-proposed draft resolution that would have recommended the General Assembly to hold a vote with the broader UN membership to allow Palestine to join as a full UN Member State.
Speaking to the Council after the vote, Russian Ambassador Vasily Nebenzya said, “Today's use of the veto by the US delegation is a hopeless attempt to stop the inevitable course of history. The results of the vote where Washington was practically in complete isolation, speak for themselves.”
He also said, “Washington will once and for all, remove itself from the list of peace loving and respected States having fully shared responsibility with Israeli allies for the deaths of tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians, and that is not worthy of a great power.”
“And history will not forgive you for that,” the Russian Ambassador added.
He called on the United States to “listen to the voice of reason, to think about the consequences of their decisions and to immediately join in the efforts of the other members of the Security Council to establish an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.”
Explaining the veto, US Official Robert A. Wood said, “The United States continues to strongly support a two-state solution. This vote does not reflect opposition to Palestinian statehood. But instead, is an acknowledgement that it will only come from direct negotiations between the parties.”
Ambassador Wood also said, “It remains the US view that the most expeditious path towards statehood for the Palestinian people is through direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority with the support of the United States and other partners.”
He continued, “We believe this approach can tangibly advance Palestinian goals in a meaningful and enduring way.”
In light of Iran's “unprecedented and outrageous actions” over the last week, Wood said, “Israel's neighbors will stand to benefit greatly from normalization.”
He reiterated, “United States is committed to intensifying its engagement with the Palestinians and the rest of the region, not only to address the current crisis in Gaza but to advance a political settlement that will create a path to Palestinian statehood, and membership in the United Nations.”
The US official also said, “United States will continue to oppose unilateral measures that undermine the prospect of a two-state solution. This includes any actions that violate the principles that Secretary Blinken has emphasized for months, that Gaza cannot be a platform for terrorism. There should be no Israeli reoccupation of Gaza and the size of Gaza’s territory should not be reduced.”
British Ambassador Barbara Woodward explained abstention from the vote.
She said, “We abstained on this resolution today because we must keep our focus on securing an immediate pause in order to get aid in and hostages out. Then making progress towards a sustainable ceasefire without a return to destruction, fighting and loss of life.”
Swiss Ambassador Pascale Baeriswyl told the Council that her country abstained on the draft resolution “without opposing it, we believe that at the present time this is not appropriate for the particular situation given the ongoing conflict.”
She continued, “We think it would be preferable to determine Palestinians membership at the United Nations at a future stage once there has been peace.”
However, Ambassador Baeriswyl said, “This will not change the position of Switzerland, our strong position on a two-state solution, we believe that only a negotiated two-state solution for Israel and Palestine living side by side in security will lead to lasting peace between Israel and Palestine.”
Algerian Ambassador Amar Bendjama, whose country is the penholder of the draft resolution, said, “We will return stronger and more vocal and we will be backed by the overwhelmingly majority of the General Assembly of the United Nations.”
Palestinian Ambassador Riyad Mansour told Council members, “Our right to self-determination is inalienable. It is not tied to a time or a timeframe. Our right is eternal, preeminence and continuous. It cannot be delayed. It cannot be suspended and it has no statute of limitations.”
He reiterated, “It is important that this right not be subject to manipulation, or domination or conditions, especially not by Israel, the occupying power, the ethnic cleansing power, the genocidal power, the colonial power that is determined to evict our people from their homeland, to eliminate their identity and to replace their history and their culture and to uproot their present and their civilization and to besiege their future and their horizons.”
Ambassador Mansour asked the Council members,“Will you give Israel the time it needs to annex Palestinian land? Will you give it the immunity to evict the people and kill them? Will you give Israel the weapons to kill more people? Will you give her, give Israel the right to veto our right to exist on our land? To veto the Palestinian state right to full membership in the United Nations?”
“Please remember that once this session adjourns, in Palestine, there are innocents paying the price with their lives and the lives of their children, the price of this Israeli action, a price to the double standards, the blind bias towards Israel. The price for the delay in justice, freedom and peace,” he said.
The Palestinian Ambassador broke into tears and said, “Our Palestinian people, wherever they are, want life, they cling onto life. Just like the other peoples on this planet, the Palestinians are people who aspire to freedom, to a dignified life, to a peaceful existence.”
“The people of Palestine will not disappear. The people of Palestine will not be buried. The Palestinian people have never been unnecessary,” he said, adding that “you either do us justice or you do it justice.”
He repeated it in English, “We love life, to live in freedom and dignity in our national homeland. We will not disappear. Either you deal with us with fairness and give us our rights or give us rights.”
Israeli Ambassador Gilad Erdan began his statement by thanking the United States, “particularly President Biden for standing up for truth and morality in the face of hypocrisy and politics,” he said.
Ambassador Erdan also said, “I explained how the Palestinian Authority does not meet even the basic criteria, that they have no authority over their territory, and that the Palestinian Authority is a terror supporting entity.”
He asked, “How can you say seriously that the Palestinians are peace loving? How? The Palestinians are paying terrorists, paying them to slaughter us. None of their leaders condemned terrorism nor the October 7 massacre. They call Hamas their brothers.”
The Israeli Ambassador said, “It’s very sad because your vote will only embolden Palestinian rejectionism even more and make peace almost impossible.”
“Speaking to this council is like speaking to a brick wall. I pray that the day will come and you will understand the magnitude of the mistake that you are making here. I pray that you will understand before it's too late,” Ambassador Erdan concluded.
For a draft resolution to pass, the Council must have at least nine members in favour and none of its permanent members – China, France, Russia, United Kingdom, United States – using their veto power.
Amid the ongoing war in Gaza, Palestine had submitted a request to the Secretary-General on 2 April, asking that a 2011 request to become a UN Member State be reconsidered.
In 2011, the Security Council considered the request but was not able to find unity in sending a recommendation to the General Assembly, which according to the UN Charter must hold a vote involving its 193 Member States.
Earlier this month, the Security Council sent the latest request to its Committee on the Admission of Member States, which met on 8 and 11 April to discuss the matter.
Palestine has been a Permanent Observer at the UN since 2012, before which it was an observer in the UN General Assembly.
