Here, Israel uses the UN Charter in the pulp and paper

Published 11 May 2024 at 14.02

Foreign. With a vote of 143 to 9, the UN General Assembly approved Palestine as a new country in the UN. Only Sweden and a small number of other US-controlled countries abstained from voting yes – and escaped angry Israeli criticism.

Share the article

TwittraShare

The resolution said among other things, that Palestine, as recognized by Sweden, “is fully qualified for membership in the UN” in accordance with Article 4 of the UN Charter.

However, despite the fact that it is a natural consequence of the former S government's recognition of Palestine in 2014, Sweden abstained when the General Assembly decided the issue.

Israel's UN Ambassador Gilad Erdan tore up the UN Charter in a shredder he carried after the decision.

– So you can see what you are doing to the UN Charter with this destructive vote. You are tearing up the UN charter with your own hands, he thundered from the podium.

Israel's foreign minister, Israel Katz, calls the decision absurd.

– The decision to raise Palestine's status in the UN is absurd and a victory for Hamas, says Katz.

The US and Israel are two of the nine countries that voted no. The US-controlled part of Europe generally abstained instead, including Finland, the Netherlands, Canada, Austria and Latvia.

However, the action should not be understood as Sweden withdrawing its recognition of Palestine as a state, according to Foreign Minister Tobias Billström.

“Sweden's recognition of Palestine and support for a two-state solution is not changed by our vote in this resolution”, he writes in a comment to SVT.