UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United Nations
voted overwhelmingly Thursday to recognize a Palestinian state, a
victory decades
in the making for the Palestinians after years of occupation and
war. It was a sharp rebuke for Israel and the United States.
A Palestinian flag was quickly unfurled on the floor of the General Assembly, behind the Palestinian delegation, as the final
vote was cast.
In an extraordinary lineup of international support, more than two-thirds of the world body's 193 member states approved the
resolution upgrading the Palestinians to a nonmember observer state. It passed 138-9, with 41 abstentions.
The historic vote came 65 years to the day
after the U.N. General Assembly voted in 1947 to divide Palestine into
two states,
one for Jews and one for Arabs. Israel became a state but the
Palestinians rejected the partition plan, and decades of tension
and violence have followed.
Real independence, however, remains an
elusive dream until the Palestinians negotiate a peace deal with the
Israelis, who
warned that the General Assembly action will only delay a lasting
solution. Israel still controls the West Bank, east Jerusalem
and access to Gaza, and it accused the Palestinians of bypassing
negotiations with the campaign to upgrade their U.N. status.
In the West Bank city of Ramallah, jubilant Palestinians crowded into the main square, waving Palestinian flags and chanting
"God is great!" Hundreds had watched the vote on outdoor screens and televisions, and they hugged, honked their horns and
set off fireworks as the final vote was cast.
The tally came after a speech by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in which he called the moment a "last chance" to save
the two-state solution.
"The General Assembly is being asked today to issue the birth certificate of Palestine," the Palestinian leader declared.
The United States and Israel immediately criticized the vote.
"Today's unfortunate and counterproductive
resolution places further obstacles in the path of peace," U.N.
Ambassador Susan
Rice said. "Today's grand pronouncements will soon fade and the
Palestinian people will wake up tomorrow and find that little
about their lives has changed save that the prospects of a durable
peace have only receded."
Calling the vote "meaningless," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Abbas of spreading "mendacious propaganda"
against Israel in a speech he rejected as "defamatory and venomous."
"The resolution in the U.N. today won't change anything on the ground," Netanyahu said. "It won't advance the establishment
of a Palestinian state, but rather, put it further off."
With most U.N. members sympathetic to the
Palestinians, there had been no doubt the resolution would be approved. A
state
of Palestine has already been recognized by 132 countries, and the
Palestinians have 80 embassies and 40 representative offices
around the world, according to the Palestinian Foreign Ministry.
Still, the Palestinians lobbied hard for Western support, winning over key European countries including France, Italy, Spain,
Switzerland, Sweden and Ireland, as well as Japan and New Zealand. Germany and Britain were among the many Western nations
that abstained.
Joining the United States and Israel in voting "no" were Canada, the Czech Republic, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru,
Palau and Panama.
Despite Thursday's triumph, the Palestinians face enormous limitations. They don't control their borders, airspace or trade,
they have separate and competing governments in Gaza and the West Bank and they have no unified army or police.
The vote grants Abbas an overwhelming
international endorsement for his key position: establishment of a
Palestinian state
in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem, the territories
captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war. With Netanyahu
opposed to a pullback to the 1967 lines, this should strengthen
Abbas' hand if peace talks resume.
The U.N. action also could help Abbas
restore some of his standing, which has been eroded by years of
standstill in peace
efforts. His rival, the Hamas militant group, deeply entrenched in
Gaza, has seen its popularity rise after it responded with
a barrage of rocket fire to an Israeli offensive earlier this
month on targets linked to the militants.
In a departure from its previous opposition, Hamas, which rules Gaza and refuses to recognize Israel, said it wouldn't interfere
with the U.N. bid for statehood, and its supporters joined some of the celebrations Thursday.
With its newly enhanced status, the
Palestinians can now gain access to U.N. agencies and international
bodies, most significantly
the International Criminal Court, which could become a springboard
for going after Israel for alleged war crimes or its ongoing
settlement building on war-won land.
However, in the run-up to the U.N. vote, Abbas signaled that he wants recognition to give him leverage in future talks with
Israel, and not as a tool for confronting or delegitimizing Israel, as Israeli leaders have claimed.
Speaking stridently at times Thursday, Abbas accused the Israelis of "colonial occupation" that institutionalizes racism and
charged that the Jewish state is continuing to perpetuate "war crimes."
Still, he said the Palestinians did not come to terminate "what remains of the negotiations process" but to try "to breathe
new life into the negotiations" and achieve an independent state.
"We will act responsibly and positively in our next steps," he said.
The Palestinians turned to the General
Assembly after the United States announced it would veto their bid last
fall for full
U.N. membership until there is a peace deal with Israel. Abbas
made clear that this remains the Palestinians' ultimate goal
— hopefully soon.
The vote grants the Palestinians the same status at the U.N. as the Vatican, and they will keep their seat next to the Holy
See in the assembly chamber.
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Associated Press writers Michael Astor and Peter Spielmann at the United Nations, Haitham Hamad and Mohammed Daraghmeh in
Ramallah, Robert Burns and Bradley Klapper in Washington and Tia Goldenberg in Jerusalem contributed to this report.