The UN Normal Meeting has adopted a Palestinian-drafted, non-binding decision demanding Israel finish “its illegal presence within the Occupied Palestinian Territory” inside 12 months.
There have been 124 votes in favour and 14 in opposition to, together with Israel, together with 43 abstentions. As a non-member observer state, Palestine couldn’t vote.
The decision relies on a July advisory opinion from the UN’s highest court docket that mentioned Israel was occupying the West Financial institution, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip in opposition to worldwide regulation.
The Palestinian ambassador known as the vote a turning level “in our battle for freedom and justice”. However his Israeli counterpart denounced it as “diplomatic terrorism”.
Though the Normal Meeting’s resolutions are usually not binding, they carry symbolic and political weight given they mirror the positions of all 193 member states of the UN.
It comes after nearly a yr of conflict in Gaza, which started when Hamas gunmen attacked Israel on 7 October, killing about 1,200 folks and taking 251 others as hostages.
Greater than 41,110 folks have been killed in Gaza since then, in line with the territory’s Hamas-run well being ministry.
There has additionally been a spike in violence within the West Financial institution over the identical interval, during which the UN says greater than 680 Palestinians and 22 Israelis have been killed. One other 10 Israelis have been killed in assaults by Palestinians in Israel.
The advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) – which was additionally not legally binding – mentioned a 15-judge panel had discovered that “Israel’s continued presence within the Occupied Palestinian Territory is illegal” and that the nation was “underneath an obligation to carry to an finish its illegal presence… as quickly as potential”.
The court docket additionally mentioned Israel ought to “evacuate all settlers from the Occupied Palestinian Territory” and “make reparation for the harm precipitated to all of the pure or authorized individuals involved”.
Israel has constructed about 160 settlements housing some 700,000 Jews within the West Financial institution and East Jerusalem since 1967. The court docket mentioned the settlements “have been established and are being maintained in violation of worldwide regulation”, which Israel has persistently disputed.
Israel’s prime minister mentioned on the time that the court docket had made a “determination of lies” and insisted that “the Jewish individuals are not occupiers in their very own land”.
Wednesday’s General Assembly resolution welcomed the ICJ’s declaration.
It calls for that Israel “brings to an finish immediately its illegal presence within the Occupied Palestinian Territory… and accomplish that no later than 12 months”, and “comply immediately with all its authorized obligations underneath worldwide regulation”.
The West Financial institution-based Palestinian Authority’s international ministry described its passing as a “pivotal and historic second for the Palestinian trigger and worldwide regulation”.
It emphasised that the assist of virtually two thirds of UN member states mirrored “a world consensus that the occupation should finish and its crimes should stop”, and that it “reaffirmed the Palestinian folks’s inalienable proper to self-determination”.
Israel’s international ministry known as the decision “a distorted determination that’s disconnected from actuality, encourages terrorism and harms the possibilities for peace”, including: “That is what cynical worldwide politics seems to be like.”
It mentioned the decision “bolsters and strengthens the Hamas terrorist organisation” and “sends a message that terrorism pays off and yields worldwide resolutions”. It additionally accused the Palestinian Authority of “conducting a marketing campaign whose objective is to not resolve the battle however to hurt Israel” and vowed to reply.
The US, which voted in opposition to the decision, warned beforehand that the textual content was “one-sided” and “selectively interprets the substance of the ICJ’s opinion”.
“There isn’t any path ahead or hope provided by means of this decision at the moment. Its adoption is not going to save Palestinian lives, carry the hostages residence, finish Israeli settlements, or reinvigorate the peace course of,” Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield mentioned.
The UK’s ambassador, Barbara Woodward, defined that it had abstained “not as a result of we don’t assist the central findings of the ICJ’s advisory opinion, however somewhat as a result of the decision doesn’t present enough readability to successfully advance our shared purpose of a peace premised on a negotiated two-state answer”.