The United Nations General Assembly will support Palestine's bid for full UN membership, recognizing that it is eligible, and refer the application back to the UN Security Council for a "positive review of the matter."
The Palestinians are renewing their bid for full UN membership - a move that would effectively recognize a Palestinian state - after the US vetoed the 15-member UN Security Council last month.
The vote by the 193-member General Assembly will serve as a global survey of support for the Palestinians. A bid for full UN membership must first be approved by the Security Council and then by the General Assembly.
But while the General Assembly alone cannot grant full UN membership, the draft resolution to be voted on May 10 would give Palestinians some additional rights and privileges from September 2024 - such as a seat among UN members in the Assembly chamber - but would not grant them voting rights.
Diplomats said the draft text would likely get the support needed to be adopted.
The Palestinian bid for full UN membership comes seven months after the war between Israel and Palestinian Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip and at a time when Israel is expanding settlements in the occupied West Bank that the UN considers illegal.
The Palestinians are currently a non-member observer state of the UN - de facto recognition of statehood that was granted by the UN General Assembly in 2012. /BGNES
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