UN General Assembly resolution urged reconsideration of full membership for Palestinians

"Praise to God. Palestine is recognised as an independent country and has become the newest member of the United Nations," read Indonesian-language text overlaid on a TikTok video posted on May 11, 2024.

It was shared one day after the UN General Assembly overwhelmingly backed the Palestinians' drive for full membership.

The video --  viewed more than 1,000 times -- shows a report about the vote from Indonesian broadcaster TV One.

Speaking in Bahasa Indonesia, one of the anchor's comments translated to English as: "The voting results of the UN plenary session show that 143 of 177 countries accepted Palestine as an independent country and as a new member of the UN."

The other anchor added: "This is historic as most of the world's countries have accepted Palestine as an independent country with the right to become a member of the United Nations. Thus Palestine can become the UN's 194th member."

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Screenshot of the false TikTok post, captured on May 23, 2024

Similar claims were shared elsewhere on TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, X, YouTube, and Snack Video, garnering more than 640,000 views.

It was shared as the bloodshed from Israel's war in Gaza revived calls for the Palestinians to be given their own state, with a growing number of EU countries expressing a desire to do so.

Hamas' unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7 resulted in the deaths of more than 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures. Militants also seized some 250 hostages.

Vowing to destroy Hamas, Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed more than 36,171 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry.

While the UN General Assembly did vote on the issue of Palestinians' membership, it did not confer them with full membership.

UN General Assembly resolution

The resolution passed on May 10, with the support of 143 nations, says the Palestinian state is qualified for UN membership and should be admitted (archived link).

The resolution adds that the General Assembly "accordingly recommends the Security Council reconsider the matter favourably". 

Nations are admitted to the UN after a green light from the Security Council and a two-thirds majority vote in the General Assembly (archived link).

With the war in Gaza raging, the Palestinians in April relaunched a request dating back to 2011 to become full UN members.

On April 18, 12 countries on the UN Security Council backed a recommendation to give Palestinians full membership -- but the United States, Israel's staunchest ally, voted against it, using its veto to block the resolution. 

The State of Palestine is not listed among the UN's member states on its website as of May 30; it remains listed as a non-member state (archived links here and here).

Television report

A reverse image search on Google using keyframes from the falsely shared video led to the original TV One news report published on YouTube on May 11 (archived link).

Below is a screenshot comparison of the video used in the false posts (left) and the TV One report uploaded to YouTube (right):

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Screenshot comparison of the video used in the false posts (left) and the TV One report uploaded to YouTube (right)

While the video's title is: "143 of 177 Countries Accept Palestine as a New Member of the UN", its thumbnail misleadingly states "It's official, Palestine becomes the 194th member of the UN".

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Screenshot of the TV One news report''s thumbnail on YouTube

The news report included an interview with Arrmanatha Nasir, Indonesia's permanent representative to the UN (archived link).

Part of this interview was also shown in the video shared in the false posts, but it was cut before he explained what the resolution meant for the Palestinians' full UN membership.

“One thing that is also important to know is that this resolution is actually an intermediary resolution for Palestine before the process of having full membership at the UN," he said.

AFP has debunked other misinformation related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict here.