The United Nations General Assembly on Friday is set to back a Palestinian bid to become a full U.N. member by recognizing it as qualified to join and sending the application back to the U.N. Security Council to "reconsider the matter favorably."
The wording of the bid has been modified and would not be a Palestinian demand to receive a vote in the UN or its international organizations, after the United States vetoed it in the 15-member U.N. Security Council last month.
It is expected to pass with an unprecedented majority that would include most European countries voting in favor of it or abstaining. Israel hopes Hungary and the Czech Republic will vote no and believe the UN will not vote in favor of it.
The vote by the 193-member General Assembly on Friday will act as a global survey of support for the Palestinians. An application to become a full U.N. member first needs to be approved by the Security Council and then the General Assembly.
But while the General Assembly alone cannot grant full U.N. membership, the draft resolution being put to a vote on Friday will give the Palestinians some additional rights and privileges from September 2024 - like a seat among the U.N. members in the assembly hall - but it will not be granted a vote in the body.
The Palestinians are currently a non-member observer state, a de facto recognition of statehood that was granted by the U.N. General Assembly in 2012.
US Funding
The Palestinian U.N. mission in New York said on Thursday - in a letter to U.N. member states - that adoption of the draft resolution backing full U.N. membership would be an investment in preserving the long-sought-for two-state solution.
It said it would "constitute a clear reaffirmation of support at this very critical moment for the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, including the right to their independent State."
The United Nations has long endorsed a vision of two states living side by side within secure and recognized borders. Palestinians want a state in the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza Strip, all territory captured by Israel in the 1967 Six Day War with neighboring Arab states.
The U.S. mission to the United Nations said earlier this week: "It remains the U.S. view that the path toward statehood for the Palestinian people is through direct negotiations."
Israel's U.N. Ambassador Gilad Erdan on Monday denounced the draft text for attempting to give the Palestinians the de facto status and rights of a state. He said the adoption of the text would not change anything on the ground.
"If it is approved, I expect the United States to completely stop funding the U.N. and its institutions, in accordance with American law," said Erdan.
Under U.S. law, Washington cannot fund any U.N. organization that grants full membership to any group that does not have the "internationally recognized attributes" of statehood. The United States cut funding in 2011 for the U.N. cultural agency, UNESCO, after the Palestinians joined as a full member.
On Thursday, 25 U.S. Republican senators - more than half of the party's members in the chamber - introduced a bill to tighten those restrictions and cut off funding to any entity giving rights and privileges to the Palestinians. The bill is unlikely to pass the Senate, which is controlled by President Joe Biden's Democrats.