UNGA: India chose not to vote in favour of a resolution at the UN General Assembly asking the International Court of Justice to weigh in on the legal ramifications of Israel’s “prolonged occupation” and annexation of Palestinian territory. With 87 votes in favour, 26 votes against, and 53 abstentions, including one from India, the draught resolution titled “Israeli activities harming the human rights of the Palestinian people in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem” was approved on Friday.
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About the resolution
The resolution decided to ask the UN’s top court to “render an advisory opinion” on “what are the legal consequences arising from the ongoing violation by Israel of the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, from its prolonged occupation, settlement and annexation of the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, including measures aimed at altering the demographic composition, character and status of the Holy City of Jerusalem, and from its adoption of related discriminatory legislation and measures.” Additionally, it posed the following question to the Hague-based principal UN court: “how do the policies and practises of Israel… affect the legal status of the occupation, and what are the legal consequences that arise for all States and the United Nations from this status?” Brazil, Japan, Myanmar, and France were among the countries that abstained from voting on the resolution, along with the US and Israel.
Resolution is a moral stain on the UN and every country that supports it
The “outrageous resolution” requesting the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice, according to Israel’s ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan, is a “moral stain on the UN and every country that supports it,” he said prior to the voting. No international organisation has the authority to rule that Jews are “occupiers” in their own country. Any ruling made by a court that obtains its authority from the politicised and morally bankrupt UN is wholly invalid. The decision to hold a vote on Israel on Shabbat, according to Erdan, is yet another illustration of the “moral deterioration” of the UN and prohibits Israel’s viewpoint from being heard in a vote whose outcomes are predetermined.
The Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas stated in his address at the UN General Assembly High-Level Week in September 2021 that if Israel did not retreat to the 1967 borders within a year, the Palestinians would turn to The Hague. He said that today’s vote fulfilled Abbas’s ultimatum.
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President of the World Jewish Congress’ statement
Following the vote, Ronald S. Lauder, president of the World Jewish Congress, issued a statement in which he criticised the United Nations for continuing a pattern of bias against Israel and praised the 26 nations, including the United States, that voted against the resolution, which sought to isolate and demonise the Jewish state. Lauder claimed, “measure is a direct outgrowth of the biassed Commission of Inquiry on Israel, whose commissioners have made antisemitic comments and who have been unabashed critics of Israel. Referral of this issue to the ICJ is yet another barrier to dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians.” Only the two parties directly concerned can negotiate peace in the region, according to Lauder. Jewish communities from more than 100 nations are represented by the World Jewish Congress before governments, parlaments, and international organisations.
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