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Israel allies, Germany, Czech to abstain in UN vote on Palestine

Germany and the Czech Republic have announced they will abstain in a vote on the upgrading of the status of Palestine at the UN, while they were largely expected to vote against the bid.

German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said in a statement on Thursday that Berlin decided to abstain in the vote, which would upgrade Palestine’s status at the UN from “observer entity” to “observer state.”

“We did not take this decision lightly. Germany shares the goal of a Palestinian state. We have campaigned for this in many ways… but the decisive steps towards real statehood can only be the result of negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians,” he said.

Czech also unofficially announced that it will abstain.

This comes as the two European nations, which are staunch supporters of the Israeli regime, announced earlier that they would vote “No” at the UN General Assembly on Thursday to the Palestine UN upgrade.

The observer state status will grant Palestinians access to UN agencies and the International Criminal Court, where they could file formal complaints against the Israeli regime.

Reports indicate that many of the European Union states, including Austria, Denmark, France, Greece and Spain, are expected to support the Palestinian bid, while the rest will abstain.

On November 26, acting Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas submitted a draft resolution to the UN General Assembly, requesting the upgrade. The UN assembly will vote on the bid on Thursday, November 29.

Palestinians need a majority vote from 193 members of the General Assembly to win the bid.

Currently, as many as 150 nations, which already recognize Palestine as a sovereign state, are in favor of the upgrade.

A similar vote was held on November 29, 1947, when the UN assembly voted for the partition of Palestine. Thirty three countries were in favor of the vote, while 13 opposed and 10 abstained.

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