RAMALLAH, Friday, May 10, 2024 (WAFA) – President Mahmoud Abbas today welcomed the United Nations General Assembly’s (UNGA) vote in favor of Palestine’s bid to become a full UN member.

President Abbas commended the member states that have voted in favor of the resolution that is consistent with the international consensus to isolate the Israeli occupation along with its grave crimes and violations of UN resolutions.

He asserted that the overwhelming vote in favour of the resolution serves as conclusive evidence that the world stands united behind the values of justice, freedom and peace embodied in the Palestinian Question and against ongoing Israeli crimes against the Palestinian people.

The assembly adopted the resolution with 143 votes in favour and nine against – including the US and Israel – while 25 countries abstained. It does not give the Palestinians full UN membership, but simply recognises them as qualified to join.

President Abbas vowed that the State of Palestine would pursue its bid to obtain full membership in the United Nations through a UN Security Council resolution and reinvite the states that have not recognized it to do so.

He called on the US administration to retreat from taking sides with the Israeli occupation and settler-colonialism, respect the will of the states and peoples who voted in favor of the resolution and refrain from casting the veto to confront international legitimacy and the right embodied by the just Palestinian cause.

He considered that the UNGA resolution protects the two-state solution and embodies the Palestinian people’s legitimate right to establish its independent State on its national soil, with Jerusalem as its capital, as serves as an essential pillar of peace in the region.

He stressed that achieving sustainable peace, security and stability in the Middle East region and the world is contingent on implementing the United Nations resolutions, ending the Israeli occupation of the territories of the State of Palestine and recognizing the Palestinian people’s legitimate rights, first and foremost the right to self-determination and establishing its independent state, with East Jerusalem as its capital.

He reiterated the need to bring an end to the Israeli aggression in the West Bank; Gaza and Jerusalem; secure a complete and immediate withdrawal of the Israeli forces from the war-torn Gaza Strip; ensure the entry of humanitarian aid to all parts of the Strip, return of the displaced persons to their homes and the prevention of displacement.

He also reiterated the need to proceed with implementing the political solution to the Palestinian cause based on the UN resolutions and the Arab Peace Initiative to end the foreign Israeli occupation of the territories of the State of Palestine on the basis of the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital.

K.F.