United Nations Recognizes Palestine as Sovereign State

The United Nations General Assembly on Thursday approved the de facto recognition of Palestine as a sovereign state under the presidency of Mahmoud Abbas.

President Abbas urged the Assembly to grant Palestine and its people "its long overdue birth certificate," as reported by Reuters. So now after the votes Palestine will enjoy the status of United Nations "non-member." Prior to this, Palestine was noted merely as an "entity."

U.S. and Israel were among the nine states that voted against the General Assembly's decision, while 41 states abstained and 138 States voted in favor of granted Palestine the recognition of a state.

President Abbas told the U.N. General Assembly, "Sixty-five years ago on this day, the United Nations General Assembly adopted resolution 181, which partitioned the land of historic Palestine into two states and became the birth certificate for Israel...The General Assembly is called upon today to issue a birth certificate of the reality of the State of Palestine," as reported by Reuters. He then went on to talk about Israel talking about its "aggressive policies and the perpetration of war crimes."

President Abbas' speech was greeted with a standing ovation.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu released a statement expressing his discontent with President Abbas' comments on Israel calling them "hostile and poisonous," as reported by Reuters. The U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also sided with Prime Minister, Netanyahu, called the vote "unfortunate and counterproductive."

The United Nations General Assembly has 193 member nation-states. Prior to this resolution, Palestine had the same status as the Vatican, which is titled as an "entity."

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