BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- The UN General Assembly overwhelmingly approved a resolution on Thursday to upgrade Palestine to a "non-member state" at the United Nations, implicitly recognizing a Palestinian state.
There were 138 votes in favor, nine against and 41 abstentions.
Addressing the assembly in New York ahead of the vote, President Mahmoud Abbas said the UN bid was the last chance to save the two-state solution.
"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," Abbas told the 193-nation assembly after receiving a standing ovation.
"The General Assembly is called upon today to issue a birth certificate of the reality of the State of Palestine," he said.
The president told the UN that Israel's war on Gaza highlighted the urgency of ending the Israeli occupation.
"It also reaffirmed the Israeli government's adherence to the policy of occupation, brute force and war," he said.
"We believe that the international community is standing before the last chance of the two-state solution." more
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