Australia voted "yes" and the United Nations General Assembly emphatically supported a Palestinian bid to become a full member of the organisation by recognising it as qualified to join.
The vote, held at the UN's New York headquarters on Friday, local time, passed with 143 nations in favour and nine against — including the United States and Israel — while 25 countries abstained.
The resolution was seen as a de facto step towards future Palestinian statehood.
The Palestinian push for full UN membership comes seven months into a war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.
While there is a Palestinian ambassador to the UN, they are considered an "observer".
Australia, which had previously abstained from voting on a call for an immediate humanitarian truce in the war, voted "yes" on Friday.
It does not give the Palestinians full UN membership, but simply recognises them as qualified to join, and gives them more "rights and privileges".
"We value this decision. And we thank Australia for this position," said Omar Awadalla, the assistant minister for the United Nations from the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) that governs the West Bank.
"And this is an action and actionable step by Australia toward recognising the rights of the Palestinian people to self-determination, and to their membership to the United Nations," Mr Awadalla told the ABC.
He said Australia was supporting with its actions the two-state solution.
"And we think that those states who want to support the peace and justice and stability in the Middle East should take the same decision like Australia did, by accepting Palestine in having their membership to the United Nations as a step toward achieving their independence … and having the two-state solution based on international law and very well-known differences and the Arab Peace Initiative."
Full membership unlikely
Despite the significant number of "yes" votes, the Palestinian bid for full UN membership will likely hit a brick wall.
In order to become a full member, Palestinian statehood must also be backed by the UN's 15-member Security Council.
When the Security Council last voted on the issue in April, the US used its power to unilaterally veto it.
The resolution passed on Friday recommended the UN Security Council "reconsider the matter favourably".
Australia's ambassador to the UN, James Larsen, was among the first to address the General Assembly after the vote, saying his country welcomed "unwavering support for the two-state solution of Israel and Palestine living side-by-side in peace and security".
"Australia has long believed a two-state solution offers the only hope for breaking the endless cycle of violence and achieving lasting peace," he said.
"Like many member states, Australia has been frustrated by the lack of progress.
"There is a role for the international community to build momentum, [and] set expectations that parties resumed negotiations for tangible progress and to support efforts for a political process.
"The resolution does not provide membership of the United Nations and retains the status of the permanent observer mission with a modest extension of additional rights."
Before the vote, Palestinian ambassador to the UN Riyad Mansour told the assembly his people wanted "peace and freedom".
"A yes vote is a vote for Palestinian existence, it is not against any state," he said.
He went on to describe voting yes as "the right thing to do", in remarks that drew applause.
Under the founding UN's charter, membership is open to "peace-loving states" that accept the obligations in that document and are able and willing to carry them out.
Israel's ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, also spoke before the vote, telling the General Assembly that: "As long as so many of you are 'Jew-hating', you don't really care that the Palestinians are not 'peace-loving'."
He accused the assembly of shredding the UN charter, and then used an actual shredder to destroy a copy of the charter while at the lectern.
After the vote, US ambassador to the UN Robert Wood told the General Assembly his country's "no" vote did not reflect opposition to Palestinian statehood.
"Instead, it is an acknowledgement that statehood will only come from a process that involves direct negotiations between the parties," he said.
ABC/Reuters
