Israel to summon ambassadors of 6 countries that voted for Palestinian UN membership

Israel will summon ambassadors of countries that voted for full Palestinian UN membership at the Security Council on Thursday to lodge protests with them, a foreign ministry spokesman said Saturday.

Twelve countries backed a resolution recommending full Palestinian membership at the world body Thursday and two — Britain and Switzerland — abstained, with the US wielding its veto to torpedo the measure, The Times of Israel reports.

Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Oren Marmorstein said the ministry would summon ambassadors of France, Japan, South Korea, Malta, Slovenia, and Ecuador on Sunday, “and a strong protest will be presented to them.”

“An identical protest will be presented to additional countries,” he said in a post on X.

“The unambiguous message that will be delivered to the ambassadors: 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,” Marmorstein said, referring to the devastating attack on Israel by the Palestinian terror group Hamas.

Some 1,200 people were killed and 253 were taken hostage during the onslaught, which touched off an ongoing war to eliminate the terror group in Gaza.

Foreign countries involved in mediation efforts around the war have sought to parlay the indirect talks into negotiations aimed at advancing a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“Israel will not agree to the establishment of a terror state that will endanger its citizens,” Marmorstein wrote. “It will also be clarified to the ambassadors that instead of making political gestures that reward the Hamas terrorist organization, the countries should apply pressure on Hamas to immediately release the 133 women and men being held hostage.”

The draft resolution voted on Thursday 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.

The US had sought to convince the Palestinian Authority to shelve the measure, and then turned to other members to either oppose or abstain after Ramallah rebuffed Washington’s request, a US official told The Times of Israel.

France, Japan, South Korea, and Slovenia all voted in favor of the resolution submitted by Algeria, even though none of them have individually recognized a Palestinian state.

The US official speculated that those countries voted the way they did even though they didn’t practically support the measure because they knew there wouldn’t be any consequences for doing so, given Washington’s pledged veto.

Sierra Leone, Russia, Mozambique, Malta, Guyana, Ecuador, China, and Algeria also voted in favor of the resolution; each have already recognized a Palestinian state.

Following the US’s use of its veto, the Palestinian Authority said it would “reconsider” its relationship with Washington.

The US has long opposed Palestinian efforts to unilaterally secure statehood status at the UN, arguing that the goal should be achieved through direct negotiations with Israel.