Angry Israeli envoy shreds UN Charter over resolution for full membership of Palestine

NEW YORK: In a strong display of outrage, Israeli Ambassador Gilad Erdan shredded the UN charter at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) just before it passed a resolution for supporting full membership of Palestine.

The UNGA on Friday voted overwhelmingly for a resolution asking the Security Council to make Palestine, which has UN observer status, a full member. The resolution was passed by a resounding majority of 143 votes in favour including by India while 25 countries abstained, and nine nations, including the United States and Israel, voted against it.

The Israeli envoy called the resolution a “clear violation” of the UN Charter and said that it subverted the US veto in the Security Council last month. Erdan said he is “holding up the mirror” for General Assembly members while shredding the UN Charter.

Today, I demonstrated to the General Assembly what they are doing to the UN Charter by ignoring it and shredded it on the stage. I told the ambassadors that today will go down in infamy and I want the world to remember when they shredded the UN Charter to advance a Nazi regime… pic.twitter.com/NulOtHsAdK

— Ambassador Gilad Erdan גלעד ארדן (@giladerdan1) May 10, 2024

“This day will go down in infamy. I want the entire world to remember this moment, this immoral act…today I want to hold up a mirror for you, so you can see what exactly you are inflicting upon the UN Charter with this destructive vote. You are shredding the UN Charter with your own hands”, he said. He also alleged that the resolution opens up the UN for “modern day Nazis”, referring to Hamas.

“Today, you are also about to grant privileges and write to the future terror state of Hamas. You have opened up the United Nations for modern day Nazis, to the Hitler of our times…So here it is. I present to you the future outcome of today’s vote…the soon-to-be President, Yahya Sinwar, President tyrant of the State of Hamas, sponsored by the UN, and he owes his deepest gratitude to you, the General Assembly,” the Israeli envoy added while holding up an image of Sinwar, the head of Hamas in Gaza.

“At the end of my speech, I tore the ‘UN Charter’ to pieces, to illustrate what the assembly is doing in its support for the entry of Palestinian terrorism into the UN”, Erdan later posted on X.

The text, put forward by the United Arab Emirates, grants new privileges to the Palestinian Authority in its current capacity as a non-member observer state and calls for the UN Security Council – which must rule on Palestinian membership — to “reconsider the matter favourably”, as reported by CNN.

Israel foreign minister Israel Katz also condemned the resolution’s passage, describing it as an “absurd decision” that highlights “the structural bias of the UN” and rewards the actions of Hamas on October 7, CNN reported. “The message that the UN is sending to our suffering region: violence pays off,” he said. “The decision to upgrade the status of Palestinians in the UN is a prize for Hamas terrorists after they committed the largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.”

Meanwhile, the Palestinian envoy, Riyad Mansour, stated that the Palestinian Authority will now request full membership from the Security Council. However, the US has already warned that it will likely veto such a request in the Security Council — a replay of its April veto of an earlier Palestinian membership request.

Last month, the United States used its veto power to block a United Nations Security Council resolution on granting statehood to Palestine. In the vote 12-1, the one being the US veto and two abstentions, the UNSC did not adopt a draft resolution that would have recommended the General Assembly to hold a vote with the broader UN membership to allow Palestine to join as a full UN Member State.

For a draft resolution to pass, the UNSC must have at least nine members in favour and none of its permanent members — China, France, Russia, the UK, and the US–using their veto power, according to the UN document. (ANI)