• On 14 October 1974, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) was recognized by the UN General Assembly as
the representative of the Palestinian people and granted the right to participate in the deliberations of the General Assembly on the question of Palestine in plenary meetings. • On 22 November 1974, the PLO was granted
non-state observer status, allowing the PLO to participate in all Assembly sessions, as well as in other UN platforms. • On 15 December 1988,
UN General Assembly Resolution 43/177 acknowledged the
Palestinian Declaration of Independence of November 1988 and replaced the designation "Palestine Liberation Organization" with "Palestine" in the UN system. • On 23 September 2011, Palestinian President
Mahmoud Abbas submitted an application for membership of Palestine in the UN. • On 29 November 2012,
UN General Assembly resolution 67/19 granted Palestine
non-member observer state status. • On 17 December 2012, UN Chief of Protocol Yeocheol Yoon decided that the constitutional name "State of Palestine" shall be used by the Secretariat in all official UN documents. • On 10 May 2024,
UN General Assembly Resolution ES-10/23 granted additional rights to the State of Palestine at the UN, including being seated with member states, the right to introduce proposals and agenda items, and participate in committees, but did not grant them the right to vote. • On 28–30 July 2025, a
multilateral conference was held at UN headquarters in New York at the initiative of the French and Saudi governments, calling for ending the
war in Gaza and establishing a Palestinian state. It reconvened on 22 September.
Application for UN membership After a two-year impasse in negotiations with Israel, the PA began a diplomatic campaign to gain recognition for the State of Palestine on the borders prior to the
Six-Day War, with
East Jerusalem as its capital. The efforts, which began in late 2009, gained widespread attention in September 2011, when President
Mahmoud Abbas submitted an application to the UN to accept Palestine as a member state. This would have constituted collective recognition of the State of Palestine, which would have allowed its government to pursue legal claims against other states in
international courts. In order for a state to gain membership in the General Assembly, its application must have the support of two-thirds of
member states with a prior recommendation for admission from the
Security Council. This requires the absence of a
veto from any of the Security Council's five permanent members. was supported by the Arab League in May 2011, and was officially confirmed by the PLO on 26 June. The decision was labelled by the Israeli government as a unilateral step, while the Palestinian government countered that it was essential to overcoming the current impasse. Several other countries—such as Germany and Canada—also denounced the decision and called for a prompt return to negotiations; however, many others—such as Norway and Russia—endorsed the plan, as did
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who stated: "UN members are entitled whether to vote for or against the Palestinian statehood recognition at the UN." of Brazil formally recognized the State of Palestine in December 2010. High-level delegations led by
Yasser Abed Rabbo,
Riyad al-Maliki,
Saeb Erekat,
Nabil Shaath, and
Riyad Mansour paid visits to many states.
Palestinian ambassadors, assisted by those of other Arab states, were charged with enlisting the support of the governments to which they were accredited. as did inter-governmental organizations such as the
African Union, and the
Non-Aligned Movement. Israel took steps to counter the initiative, and Germany, Italy, Canada and the U.S. announced publicly that they would vote against the resolution. the
Netanyahu administration stated that it did not expect to prevent a resolution from passing should it go ahead. In August,
Haaretz quoted the Israeli ambassador to the UN,
Ron Prosor, as stating that Israel would be unable to block a resolution at the General Assembly by September. "The maximum that we can hope to gain is for a group of states who will abstain or be absent during the vote", wrote Prosor. "Only a few countries will vote against the Palestinian initiative." Instead, the Israeli government focused on obtaining a "moral majority" of major democratic powers, in an attempt to diminish the weight of the vote. Considerable weight was placed on the position of the
European Union, At the end of August, Israel's defence minister
Ehud Barak said that "it is very important that all the players come up with a text that will emphasize the quick return to negotiations, without an effort to impose pre-conditions on the sides." Efforts from both Israel and the U.S. also focused on pressuring the Palestinian leadership to abandon its plans and return to negotiations. In the U.S.,
Congress passed a bill denouncing the initiative and calling on the
Obama administration to veto any resolution that would recognize a Palestinian state declared outside of an agreement negotiated by the two parties. A similar bill was passed in the
Senate, which also threatened a withdrawal of aid to the West Bank. In late August, another congressional bill was introduced which proposes to block U.S. government
funding for UN entities that support Palestinian membership in the UN. Several top U.S. officials, including ambassador to the UN
Susan Rice and consul-general in Jerusalem
Daniel Rubinstein, made similar threats. In the same month, it was reported that the Israeli Ministry of Finance was withholding its monthly payments to the PNA. Foreign Minister
Avigdor Lieberman warned that if Palestine took unilateral action, Israel would consider the Oslo Accords null and void, On 11 July 2011, the
Quartet met to discuss a return to negotiations, but the meeting produced no result.
OneVoice Palestine launched a domestic campaign in partnership with local news agencies, with the aim of getting the involvement and support of Palestinian citizens. Overseas, campaigns were launched in several nations, calling on their governments to vote "yes" in the resolution. On 7 September, a group of Palestinian activists under the banner "Palestine: State No. 194" staged a demonstration outside the UN's office in
Ramallah. During the demonstration, they submitted to the office a letter addressed to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, urging him to "exert all possible efforts toward the achievement of the Palestinian people's just demands". The following day, Ban told reporters, "I support ... the statehood of Palestinians; an independent, sovereign state of Palestine. It has been long overdue", but he also stated that "recognition of a state is something to be determined by the member states." Other UN organs had previously expressed readiness to see a Palestinian state. In April 2011, the UN's co-ordinator for the Middle East peace process issued a report on the PA's state-building progress, describing "aspects of its administration as sufficient for an independent state". It echoed a similar assessment published the week prior by the
International Monetary Fund. The
World Bank released a report in September 2010 that found the PA "well-positioned to establish a state" at any point in the near future; however, the report highlighted that, unless
private-sector growth in the Palestinian economy was stimulated, a Palestinian state would remain
donor dependent. ;Note:
Bold: Denotes the
permanent members of the UN Security Council (UNSC).
P: Malta was the
president of the UN Security Council when the vote was conducted.
D: Algeria submitted the draft resolution under consideration. The new status equated Palestine's with that of the
Holy See. The change in status was described by
The Independent as "
de facto recognition of the sovereign state of Palestine". Voting "no" were Israel,
Canada, the
Czech Republic, the
Marshall Islands, the
Federated States of Micronesia,
Nauru,
Palau,
Panama and the U.S. The vote was an important benchmark for the
partially recognized State of Palestine and its citizens, while being a diplomatic setback for Israel and the U.S. Status as an observer state in the UN allows the State of Palestine to join treaties and
specialized UN agencies, the Law of the Seas treaty, and the
International Criminal Court (ICC). It permits Palestine to pursue legal rights over its territorial waters and air space as a sovereign state recognized by the UN, and allows the Palestinian people the right to sue for sovereignty over their territory in the International Court of Justice and to bring "crimes against humanity" and war-crimes charges, including that of unlawfully occupying the territory of
State of Palestine, against Israel in the ICC. In December 2014, the ICC recognized Palestine as a state without prejudice to any future judicial determinations on the issue of statehood. After the resolution was passed, the UN has permitted Palestine to title its representative office to the UN as "The Permanent Observer Mission of the State of Palestine to the United Nations", seen by many as a reflection of the UN's
de facto position of recognizing the State of Palestine's sovereignty under international law, The Palestinian authorities also instructed its diplomats to officially represent the "State of Palestine", as opposed to the "Palestine National Authority".
Renewed membership efforts and additional rights at the UN The effort to secure full UN membership was renewed in 2024 during the
Gaza war, with the UN Security Council holding a vote on the topic in April. Although the vote had a majority of 12 in favour with two abstentions, the U.S. voted against and therefore vetoed the measure. On 10 May 2024, the UN General Assembly passed
a resolution that recognized that Palestine met the requirements for UN membership, and requested that the Security Council reconsider admitting the state. It also granted Palestine additional rights at the UN, including being seated with member states, the right to introduce proposals and agenda items, and participate in committees, but did not grant them the right to vote. ==States that recognize Palestine==