IAEA votes to deal with Palestine as a state

A general view shows the room of the 67th International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) General Conference, an annual meeting of all the IAEA member states, at the agency’s headquarters in Vienna, Austria, on September 25, 2023. [Photo by ALEX HALADA/AFP via Getty Images]

The General Conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has adopted a resolution to consider Palestine as a state, news agencies reported on Friday.

According to Al Sharq Al Awsat newspaper, this came as the IAEA’s members voted on a draft-resolution to officially adopt the designation of “State of Palestine.”

The General Conference of the IAEA had voted, with an overwhelming majority of 92 countries, on the Egyptian draft-resolution to officially adopt the designation of “State of Palestine,” and grant it more privileges and rights.

In a statement on Friday, the Palestinian National Council said that the overwhelming vote at the International Atomic Energy Agency was a clear condemnation of the Israeli occupation policy of expansion and illegal annexation in violation of international laws.

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The Council thanked “all the countries that supported and endorsed the decision, especially the sister Arab Republic of Egypt, which submitted the request on behalf of the State of Palestine.”

Meanwhile, the head of the Palestinian National Council, Rawhi Fattouh, welcomed the decision of the Anglican Church in South Africa to declare Israel an “apartheid state.”

“This decision is a victory for our Palestinian cause, and expresses the extent of injustice and racial discrimination against the Palestinian people, especially the storming of Islamic and Christian places of worship, the attacks on Christian clergy, and the operations of repression committed by the fascist occupation government,” Fatouh said.

The Higher Committee of Churches Affairs in Palestine also hailed the decision of the Anglican Church, noting that it came in response to and in solidarity with the calls made by Palestinian Christians to hold Israel accountable for its “crimes against the Palestinian people.”

The Anglican Church in South Africa has dioceses in Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini, Mozambique, Angola, and St. Helena, in addition to South Africa. It holds its church council, the “Synod,” every three years.

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