AMMAN, Saturday, May 11, 2024 (WAFA) – Jordan's Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi late Friday considered the United Nations General Assembly’s (UNGA) vote in favor of Palestine’s full membership in the UN as proof that "Israel is becoming a pariah state."

“As Israel’s barbaric aggression on 2.3m Palestinians in Gaza continues, the majority of the world stood on the side of justice today, endorsing Palestinian membership of the UN in a decision further proving Israel is becoming a pariah state,” Safadi wrote on the X platform.

“We thank all who took this stand,” he added.

The UNGA has backed a Palestinian bid to become a full UN member by recognising it as qualified to join and recommending the UN Security Council “reconsider the matter favourably”.

The vote by the 193-member UNGA on Friday was a global survey of support for the Palestinian bid to become a full UN member – a move that would effectively recognise a Palestinian state – after the United States vetoed it in the UN Security Council last month.

The assembly adopted a resolution on Friday 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.

The UNGA resolution “determines that the State of Palestine … should therefore be admitted to membership” and it “recommends that the Security Council reconsider the matter favourably”.

The Palestinian push for full UN membership comes seven months into an Israeli genocidal offensive against the blockaded Gaza Strip, and as the Israeli occupation is expanding illegal colonies in the occupied West Bank with an alarming uptick in colonist attacks against Palestinians.

Tried before the International Court of Justice for genocide against Palestinians, Israel has been waging a devastating war on Gaza since October 7, killing at least 34,943 Palestinians and injuring over 78,572 others.

Moreover, at least 7,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip.

Palestinian and international organizations say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.

The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all over the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.

K.F.