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This week, the United Nations General Assembly voted to recognize the Palestinian Authority as a “non-member observer state.” The vote came a year after the General Assembly denied the Palestinian Authority full membership. There was excitement at the UN’s headquarters in New York on Thursday as the voting came to an end. “The voting has been completed. Please lock the machines…(applause).” One hundred thirty-eight UN members voted for the resolution. Nine nations were opposed. Forty-one others chose not to vote. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas spoke to the assembly before the vote. He said the Palestinian people would not accept anything less than an independent Palestine, with East Jerusalem as its capital. “We did not come here seeking to delegitimize a state established years ago, and that is Israel. Rather we came to affirm the legitimacy of a state that must now achieve its independence, and that is Palestine.” He added that supporters of the resolution are showing what he called their “principled and moral support for freedom and the rights of peoples and international law and peace.” The United States, Israel and seven other countries opposed the measure. American Ambassador Susan Rice spoke after the vote. “Today's grand pronouncements will soon fade. And the Palestinian people will wake up tomorrow and find that little about their lives has changed, save that the prospects of a durable peace have only receded.” | 
