Israel immediately rebuked the decision taken by the United Nations General Assembly to enhance Palestine’s rights within the global body and voted by a wide margin on Friday to grant new “rights and privileges” to Palestine and called on the Security Council to reconsider Palestine’s request to become the 194th member of the United Nations.
Watch: Israeli ambassador to the UN @giladerdan1 used a paper shredder to shred the UN charter on the podium of the UN general assembly ahead of a vote that will give new privileges to the Palestinians at the UN pic.twitter.com/mWQ85c8uwK— Barak Ravid (@BarakRavid) May 10, 2024
The Israeli envoy to the UN Gilad Erdan headed to the UNGA dais and pulled out a tiny shredder, with which he destroyed the UN charter in front of the assembly.
The Israeli-held area (since 1967) in the eastern Mediterranean region is recognized as a sovereign state by 143 of the 193 member states of the United Nations but has had a non-member observer state status since 2012.
This means that it has some rights short of a full member. The UN Security Council can only decide upon its membership.
The video of Erdan shredding the UN Charter was shared by Axios political reporter Barak Ravid. The video has gained 2.6 million views on X since it was shared on May 10.
“You are shredding the UN charter with your own hands… Shame on you. (Admitting Palestine would give) the rights of a state to an entity that is already partly controlled by terrorists, and will be replaced by a force of child-murdering Hamas rapists,” Erdan said.
The world body approved the Arab and Palestinian-sponsored resolution by a vote of 143-9 with 25 abstentions. The United States voted against it, along with Israel, Argentina, Czechia, Hungary, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau and Papua New Guinea.
India voted in favour of a draft UN General Assembly resolution and recommended that the Security Council “reconsider” the matter “favourably”.
“This shameless body has chosen to reward modern-day Nazis and advance the establishment of a Palestinian terror state led by the Hitler of our time,” he further added.
But the Palestinian ambassador to the UN, Riyad Mansour, called the vote “historic” and “significant”.
The vote reflected the wide global support for full membership of Palestine in the United Nations, with many countries expressing outrage at the escalating death toll in Gaza and fears of a major Israeli offensive in Rafah, a southern city where about 1.3 million Palestinians have sought refuge.
“No words can capture what such loss and trauma signifies for Palestinians, their families, communities and for our nation as a whole,” Mansour said.
Comments
0 comment