UN General Assembly Calls for Establishment of Palestinian State

The United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday adopted a resolution calling for the end of Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.

The resolution also calls for an international conference in June 2025 aimed at advancing the two-state solution.

During its annual review of the Palestinian issue, the General Assembly voted in favor of the resolution with 157 members supporting it, 8 voting against (including Israel, the United States, Hungary, and Argentina), and 7 members abstaining.

The resolution reaffirms the General Assembly’s steadfast support for the two-state solution, in which Israel and Palestine live side by side in peace and security within internationally recognized borders, based on pre-1967 boundaries.

The resolution also emphasizes the need for urgent collective efforts to initiate credible negotiations on all final-status issues in the Middle East peace process.

To further this objective, the General Assembly has decided to hold a high-level international conference in June 2025 aimed at resolving the Palestinian issue peacefully and implementing the two-state solution. The conference will be co-chaired by France and Saudi Arabia and will take place in New York.

The resolution specifically calls for the realization of the Palestinian people's inalienable rights, including their right to self-determination and the establishment of an independent state.

In addition, based on recent rulings by the International Court of Justice, the General Assembly demands that Israel end its illegal presence in the occupied Palestinian territories as soon as possible, halt all new settlement activities immediately, and evacuate all settlers from the occupied Palestinian territories.

The UN considers all Palestinian territories, including the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza Strip, to be occupied.

Before the vote, Palestinian Ambassador to the UN, Riyad Mansour, emphasized that the Palestinian issue has been on the UN agenda since the organization’s inception and remains the most significant test of the UN’s credibility, authority, and commitment to a rule-based international order.

Mansour accused Israel of seeking to "destroy and displace the people in order to annex the land," warning that this approach could condemn both the Palestinian and Israeli peoples, as well as the broader region, to successive wars—wars that, he argued, could and should be prevented.