Israel has announced that it will summon the ambassadors of several countries for a “protest talk” on Sunday, following their vote in favor of granting full United Nations membership to Palestine. The decision comes amid heightened tensions after the United States vetoed the Palestinian membership bid earlier this week.
On Thursday, the UN Security Council voted 12-2 on a draft resolution that called for recommending to the General Assembly “that the State of Palestine be admitted to membership of the United Nations” in place of its current “non-member observer state” status, which it has held since 2012. Britain and Switzerland abstained from the vote.
Only the United States, Israel’s staunchest ally, voted against the resolution, using its veto power to block it from being adopted by the Security Council. The U.S. veto drew sharp criticism from Palestinian officials and their supporters.
In response to the failed membership bid, the Palestinian Authority stated that it would “reconsider” its relationship with the United States over Washington’s decision to veto the resolution.
On Saturday, Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Oren Marmorstein announced that Israel would summon ambassadors from the countries that voted in favor of the Palestinian membership resolution for a “protest talk” and to convey strong objections.
Specifically, the ambassadors of France, Japan, South Korea, Malta, the Slovak Republic, and Ecuador will be summoned on Sunday, Marmorstein said. He added that “an identical protest” would also be presented to additional countries that supported the resolution.
Marmorstein stated that a “strong protest” would be delivered to these ambassadors, conveying the message that “a political gesture to the Palestinians and a call to recognize a Palestinian state – six months after the October 7 massacre – is a prize for terrorism.” This appears to be a reference to a deadly Palestinian attack in the West Bank in October 2022, which killed three Israelis.
The Israeli government’s move to summon ambassadors over their countries’ votes on Palestinian UN membership highlights the deep divisions and tensions surrounding the Palestinian bid for statehood and the broader Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It remains to be seen how the summoned ambassadors and their governments will respond to Israel’s protests.
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