Before the vote, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas told the General Assembly that it “is being asked today to issue the birth certificate of Palestine.”
Of the 193 countries in the General Assembly 138 voted to recognize Palestine. Only nine, including the U.S., voted against it. Another 41 countries abstained.
In the West Bank, Palestinians erupted in a roar of cheers, horn honking and fireworks as crowds thronged the main square of Ramallah to celebrate the world’s recognition of their state.
The historic vote recognizes Palestine as a state and gives Palestine the right to join U.N. agencies. It opens the door for Palestine to become a party to the International Criminal Court, allowing them to bring cases against Israel.
Israel and the U.S. argued that the vote is purely symbolic, would change nothing on the ground, would hurt peace talks and could affect U.S. funding.
Most European countries were expected to side with the Palestinians in this dispute. The only countries voting against the resolution besides the United States and Israel were Canada, the Czech Republic and some Pacific Island states. U.S. allies France, Sweden and Italy all voted for the resolution, as did countries where the U.S. is expected to hold sway like Mexico, Afghanistan, India and Iraq. Germany, Poland and the United Kingdom all stayed out of the fray, preferring to abstain.
U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice downplayed the significance of the victorious resolution. “Today’s grand pronouncement 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,” Rice said.
The vote today falls short of triggering the law in Congress that automatically cuts all U.S. aid to Palestinian Authority and any programs in the Palestinian Territories, as well as aid to any organizations that recognize Palestine as a state. Non-member observer status falls short of being as being accepted as a “member state,” which would allow Palestine to have full voting rights in the U.N. General Assembly, something Congress is vehemently opposed to if done outside of talks with Israel.
Though it doesn’t reach that automatic trigger, Congress could still act against the Palestinians. The U.S. gives an average of $200 million of aid a year to support the administration of the Palestinian Authority and other programs, but Congress has not yet released the money for this year.