• The Palestinian Authority formally asked for renewed consideration by the United Nations Security Council of its 2011 application to become a full member of the world body.

• Palestine is a non-member observer State of the UN, the same status as held by the Holy See.

• The United Nations Security Council president referred the Palestinian Authority’s application to  become a full member of the world body to the committee on the admission of new member.

• The committee of the 15 members first assesses an application to see if it satisfies requirements for UN membership. 

• As per its rules of procedure, the Security Council shall decide whether in its judgement the applicant is committed to peace and able and willing to carry out the obligations contained in the UN Charter and, accordingly, whether to recommend the applicant State for membership.

• The application can then either be shelved or put forward for a formal vote in the Security Council. 

• Approval requires at least nine votes in favor and no vetoes by the permanent members.

• Any application for UN membership is considered by the Security Council, which then forwards it on to the 193-member General Assembly to adopt a resolution for the admission of a Member State.

Holy See

• The Holy See is the universal government of the Catholic Church and operates from Vatican City State, a sovereign city-state founded following the signing of the Lateran Pacts between the Holy See and Italy on February 11, 1929, whose territory consists of a walled enclave within the city of Rome, Italy. The Pope is the ruler of both Vatican City State and the Holy See. The Holy See, as the supreme body of government of the Catholic Church, is a sovereign juridical entity under international law. 

Australia to consider recognising Palestinian state

• Australia’s foreign minister Penny Wong said Canberra would consider recognition of a Palestinian state, a shift in policy as the international community looks for a two-State solution to end the Israel-Palestinian conflict.

• The minister said that a two-State solution is the only hope to break the endless cycle of violence.

• The two-State solution has long been the basis for international peace efforts to resolve the long Israel-Palestinian conflict, but the process has been stalled for a decade even before the present war in the Palestinian enclave Gaza between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

• Palestinians aspire to having an independent state in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, occupied by Israel since the 1967 Middle East War, and including Gaza.

• The two-State solution was the bedrock of the US-backed peace process ushered in by the 1993 Oslo Accords, signed by Yasser Arafat of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. 

• The accords led the PLO to recognise Israel’s right to exist and renounce violence and to the creation of the Palestinian Authority (PA), which has limited self autonomy in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

• Palestinians hoped this would be a step towards an independent state, with East Jerusalem as the capital. The process was hit by rejection and violence on both sides.

Israel-Palestine conflict

• Politics, history and religion all place Jerusalem at the centre of the broader Israel-Palestine conflict.

• The status of Jerusalem is one of the biggest obstacles to reaching a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians.

• Israel considers Jerusalem its eternal and indivisible capital and wants all embassies based there. Palestinians want the capital of an independent state of theirs to be in the city’s eastern sector, which Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed in a move never recognised internationally.

• Violence in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has intensified since the new government of veteran Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took power in December 2022.

• Israeli-Palestinian violence has surged with frequent military West Bank raids amid a spate of Palestinian street attacks. 

• The US-brokered peace talks aimed at establishing a Palestinian state in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza territories Israel captured in a 1967 war have stalled and show no sign of revival.

Key events related to the conflict:

1947: The United Nations recommends partition of Palestine into separate Jewish and Arab states, with international control over Jerusalem and its environs.

1948: Israel declares independence as British mandate ends.

1948-49: First Arab-Israeli war. Armistice agreements leave Israel with more territory than envisaged under the partition plan, including western Jerusalem. Jordan annexes the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem, Egypt occupies Gaza.

June 1967: After months of tension, Israel launches a pre-emptive attack on Egypt. Jordan and Syria join the war. The war lasts for six days. Israel seizes Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt, the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, from Jordan and the Golan Heights from Syria. The West Bank was not annexed by Israel but came under Israeli military control.

November 1977: Egyptian President Anwar Sadat visits Jerusalem and begins the process that leads to Israel’s withdrawal from Sinai and Egypt’s recognition of Israel in the Camp David Accords of 1978. Accords also pledge Israel to expand Palestinian self-government in the West Bank and Gaza.

December 1987: The First Intifada, a Palestinian uprising against the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, begins. Muslim Brotherhood in Gaza forms the Hamas movement, which rapidly turns to violence against Israel.

1993: Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) leader Yasser Arafat sign the Oslo Declaration to plot Palestinian self-government and formally end the First Intifada. The agreements created the Palestinian Authority, to oversee most administrative affairs in the West Bank and Gaza. The PLO is recognised by Israel and the United States as a negotiating partner. Key issues such as Israeli settlements in the West Bank and the status of Jerusalem were left unresolved. 

March 2002: Hamas suicide attack kills 30 Israeli civilians. Israel launches Operation Defensive Shield and invades and occupies much of the West Bank.

September 2005: Israel withdraws all settlements and military personnel from the Gaza Strip, marking the end of its 38-year occupation of the territory.

January 2006: The Palestinian militant group Hamas wins an overwhelming victory in parliamentary elections, sparking a struggle for primacy with its rival, the Fatah movement of Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

June 2007: Hamas violently ousts Fatah forces from the Gaza Strip and solidifies its control of the territory. Israel and Egypt tighten their blockade of Gaza, which will devastate Gaza’s economy over the next decade. Two rival governments emerge, Hamas in Gaza and the Abbas’ Palestinian Authority in the West Bank.

July-August 2014: Following the kidnapping and killing of three Israeli teenagers by Hamas members, Israel conducts a sweep against Hamas in the West Bank, prompting rocket attacks from Gaza and Israeli air raids in response. The conflict lasts for seven weeks. 

March 2015: Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu declared that there would be no two-State solution to the conflict.

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