UN Grants Palestine Observer Status

Date: November 29, 2012 • Location: Har Adar, Israel

In resolution 67/19, the United Nations General Assembly voted to accord the status of a non-member observer state to Palestine. United Nations General Assembly resolution 67/19 was a resolution accepting Palestine as a non-member observer state in the United Nations General Assembly. It was adopted by the sixty-seventh session of the United Nations General Assembly on 29 November 2012, the date of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People and the 65th anniversary of the adoption by the General Assembly of Resolution 181(II) on the future government of Palestine. The draft resolution was proposed by Palestine's representative at the United Nations. It, however, maintains the status of the Palestine Liberation Organization as the representative of the Palestinian people within the United Nations System. Though strongly contested by the United States and the government of Israel, former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert expressed support for the measure. The motion was seen as largely symbolic, though it could allow Palestine to start proceedings at the International Criminal Court against Israel.