A United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) voted by a wide margin on Friday to grant new "rights and privileges" to Palestine, urging the Security Council to reconsider its bid for UN membership.
The resolution, approved with 143 votes supporting, nine opposing, and 25 abstaining, urges the Security Council to "reconsider the matter favourably," and stresses that the Palestinian Authority be granted UN membership, saying, "the State of Palestine is qualified for membership in the United Nations."
However, the United States, prior to the session, signaled its intention to veto the membership request again, saying, "we expect a similar outcome to what occurred in April."
The US mission stated that Palestine doesn't meet the requirements to join the UN and the resolution doesn't address previous concerns about Palestinian membership.
This isn't the first time Palestine has sought UN membership. In April, a similar attempt was vetoed by the US, despite support from other Security Council members.
Israel applauded the US veto, labeling the Palestinian bid as "shameful," while the Palestinian Authority condemned it as "unfair" and "unjustified."
Back in 2011, the Palestinian Authority failed to secure UN recognition as an independent member state.
A year later, the UN decided that the Palestinian Authority’s "non-member observer entity" status would be changed to "non-member observer state," similar to the Vatican.
