UN General Assembly backs two-state push for Israel and Palestine

Less than 24 hours after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that there will never be a Palestinian state, the UN General Assembly overwhelmingly supported a resolution restoring a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine.

With 142 votes in favor, 10 against (including Israel and the United States, a crucial ally), and 12 abstentions, the “New York Declaration,” which describes “tangible, timebound, and irreversible steps” toward a two-state solution, was approved on Friday.

Presented by France and Saudi Arabia, the seven-page document calls for “collective action to end the war in Gaza, to achieve a just, peaceful and lasting settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict based on the effective implementation of the Two-State solution”.

It also orders Palestinian group Hamas, which runs the government in Gaza, to “free all hostages”, stipulating that it must “end its rule in Gaza and hand over its weapons to the Palestinian Authority … in line with the objective of a sovereign and independent Palestinian State”.

The Saudi-French initiative to develop a “workable plan” for a two-state solution was praised by Palestine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. “Activating all mechanisms to end the Israeli colonial occupation” and “achieving the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people” were other demands made by the ministry. The UN’s resounding support for the two-state solution coincided with Israel’s ongoing bombardment of Gaza and one day after Netanyahu approved a plan to expand settlements in the occupied West Bank that would essentially preclude the creation of a Palestinian state in the future.

The vote comes ahead of the September 22 UN session in New York, which is co-chaired by Paris and Riyadh. French President Emmanuel Macron and a number of other leaders have committed to formally recognizing the Palestinian state at the gathering.

Approximately ten more UN members, including France, Norway, Spain, Ireland, and the United Kingdom, are anticipated to join the 146 that now support a Palestinian state later this month. “Crucially, European nations who have been more reluctant to do so under the pressure of the United States and Israel, [are] showing the concerns that the situation on the ground there is becoming all the more dire, no progress is being made,” said Al Jazeera’s Saloomey.