Xinhua News Agency, Jerusalem, May 15 (Reporter Lv Yingxu and Wang Zhuolun) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on the 15th that Israel refused to accept the resolution on the question of Palestine's accession to the UN recently adopted by the UN General Assembly, saying that the resolution would not constitute the basis for future negotiations between Israel and Palestine.
According to the press release issued by the Information Office of the Israeli Government, the Israeli Government unanimously decided to reject the resolution of the General Assembly that day. Netanyahu said in the communique that the UN General Assembly resolution will not change the status of the disputed territory, nor will it change the rights of Israel and the Jewish people on Israeli land. This resolution will not constitute the basis for future negotiations between the two sides, nor will it accelerate the peaceful settlement of the Palestinian Israeli issue.
On the 10th of this month, the 10th emergency special session of the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution by 143 votes in favour, 9 against and 25 abstentions, affirming that the Palestinian State meets the qualifications of the United Nations as a Member State under the Charter of the United Nations and should be admitted to the United Nations. The resolution recommends that the Security Council reconsider the application of Palestine to join the United Nations as a Member State "from a favorable perspective".
Palestine is currently an observer state of the United Nations. In September 2011, Palestine submitted an official application to the United Nations to become a member of the United Nations, but it was not approved by the Security Council. At the beginning of April this year, at the request of Palestine, the 15 members of the Security Council once again considered Palestine's application for membership in the UN and voted on the relevant draft resolution on April 18. The draft was not adopted because the United States used its veto to vote against it.
