UN General Assembly approves resolution backing ‘irreversible’ path to Palestinian state

The UN General Assembly (UNGA), currently in session, approved a resolution on Friday calling for an “irreversible” path toward a Palestinian state.

The resolution was an endorsement of the “New York Declaration on the Peaceful Settlement of the Question of Palestine,” adopted at an international conference in July at the UN headquarters in New York. Signed by the EU, the Arab League, and 17 other countries, the declaration called for an immediate end to the war in Gaza and supported the deployment of a temporary international stabilization mission under a UN Security Council mandate.

The conference was organized by France and Saudi Arabia and with a declaration “lays out a single roadmap to deliver the two-State solution” according to French UN Ambassador Jerome Bonnafont.

A majority of 142 countries voted in favor of the resolution, while 10 voted against, and 12 countries abstained. Israel, Argentina, Hungary, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Tonga and the United States voted against the resolution, while Albania, Cameroon, Czechia, Ecuador, Ethiopia and Guatemala were among those who abstained.

The United States opposed the vote as “yet another misguided and ill-timed publicity stunt” that merely serves to reward Hamas and prolong the war.

“Make no mistake, this resolution is a gift to Hamas,” U.S. diplomat Morgan Ortagus told the UNGA. “Far from promoting peace, the conference has already prolonged the war, emboldened Hamas and harmed the prospects of peace in both short and long term.”

Israeli UN Ambassador Danny Danon called the resolution “one-sided theatre.”

“This one-sided declaration will not be remembered as a step toward peace, only as another hollow gesture that weakens this Assembly’s credibility…This is not diplomacy. It is theatre.

“The only beneficiary is Hamas…When terrorists are the ones cheering, you are not advancing peace; you are advancing terror,” he added.

The resolution urges the Palestinian Authority, led by Mahmoud Abbas, to assume leadership of a future Palestinian state in both Gaza and Judea and Samaria, and calls on Hamas to relinquish control of Gaza.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot, disagreeing with Israel and the United States, said the resolution, rather than rewarding Hamas, was securing the international isolation of the terrorist organization.

“For the first time today, the United Nations adopted a text condemning it for its crimes and calling for its surrender and disarmament,” Barrot wrote on 𝕏.

Several countries plan to formally recognize a Palestinian state at the UNGA on Sept. 21. In July, France, the United Kingdom, and Canada announced that they would unilaterally recognize “Palestine” at the UN session. 

Australia also announced its intention to recognize the Palestinian Authority as a de facto state and earlier this month Belgium also vowed to do so, while threatening that it would be imposing harsh sanctions on Israel.

Spain, Ireland and Norway officially recognized a Palestinian state in 2024, while Sweden did so already in 2014 with “Palestine” opening an embassy in Stockholm in 2015.