Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Council Deadlocked on Statehood Bid

A UN Security Council committee said on Friday it had failed to reach agreement over a Palestinian application for full membership in the United Nations, the Portuguese UN ambassador said.

The decision by the council’s admissions committee brought the Palestinian Authority’s push for UN recognition of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, one step closer to collapse.

It is now up to Palestinians, who have so far been unable to secure the nine votes needed to pass a Security Council resolution favoring their UN bid, to decide whether or not to call a vote on their application.

The Palestinians currently have only eight supporters, diplomats say. If the Palestinian delegation chooses to force a vote without securing nine votes, the United States would not need to use its veto power to block it.

A draft report of the committee, which includes all 15 council members, detailed the deadlock among council members. Now that the committee has formally approved it, the issue will revert back to the Security Council.

“The Council will receive the report and will discuss any future initiative,” said Portuguese envoy Jose Filipe Moraes Cabral, council president for November.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas applied for full UN membership for the state of Palestine on Sept. 23.

Israel and the United States oppose the Palestinian bid for membership and recognition of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, with East Jerusalem as its capital, saying it is aimed at de-legitimizing Israel. They say the only way the Palestinians can get statehood is via peace talks with Israel.

For more, go to Haaretz.com

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.