<\/p>\n
18 September 2024<\/p>\n
Tenth Emergency Special Session,
\n55th & 56th Meetings (AM & PM)<\/p>\n
Adopting a historic text demanding that Israel brings to an end its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, no later than 12\u00a0months from the adoption of the resolution, the General Assembly today heard speakers stake out a range of positions regarding the best way to resolve this enduring crisis.<\/p>\n
Adopted by a two-thirds majority in a recorded vote of 124\u00a0in favour to 14\u00a0against, with 43\u00a0abstentions, the text titled \u201cAdvisory opinion of the International Court of Justice on the legal consequences arising from Israel\u2019s policies and practices in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and from the illegality of Israel\u2019s continued presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory\u201d (document\u00a0A\/ES-10\/L.31\/Rev.1<\/a><\/em>) welcomed that opinion, which was issued on 19\u00a0July.<\/p>\n Introduced Tuesday by the Permanent Observer of the State of Palestine in an emergency special session of the Assembly, the text seeks to implement the Court\u2019s advisory opinion (for background, see\u00a0GA\/12625<\/a>). \u00a0It sets out numerous obligations on States and international organizations, including the obligation not to recognize as legal the situation arising from the unlawful presence of Israel in the Territory. \u00a0By its other terms, the Assembly decided to convene during its seventy-ninth session an international conference for the implementation of UN resolutions pertaining to the question of Palestine and the two-State solution.<\/p>\n Prior to its adoption, the Assembly Secretary said that in the absence of modalities, it is not possible to estimate the potential cost implications of convening an international conference.\u00a0 Once modalities are known, the budgetary implications will be assessed and the Assembly advised accordingly, she said.<\/p>\n The adoption was hailed by several delegates, including that of Syria, who said it is an expression of international solidarity with the Palestinian people and a global rejection of Israeli occupation. \u00a0Further, it renews the United Nations\u2019 unequivocal support for the establishment of a Palestinian State, he said.\u00a0 The representatives of Saint Vincent and Grenadines, Marshall Islands\u00a0<\/strong>and\u00a0<\/strong>Thailand also reaffirmed the Palestinian right to self-determination.<\/p>\n Voicing support for the International Court of Justice, Belgium\u2019s delegate underscored that\u00a0<\/strong>the resolution is in keeping with its advisory opinion.\u00a0 Israel\u2019s multidecade illegal occupation undermines the human rights of Palestinians and compromises any chances of a peace process in the Middle East, he said.\u00a0The adoption does not mean a reduction of Israel\u2019s security, he pointed out, adding that terrorist groups, such as Hamas, feed on oppression and hopelessness.\u00a0 This text offers a realistic prospect of restoring hope in a population that has been left at the mercy of extremist ideology, he said.<\/p>\n The representatives of Japan, Latvia, France, Estonia, Cyprus and Monaco also underscored the need to uphold international law and the key role of the World Court. \u00a0While cognizant of Israel\u2019s security needs, Greece\u2019s delegate said, his country nevertheless voted in favour of the text because of its principled belief that the Court\u2019s work should be respected. \u00a0Singapore\u2019s delegate said that\u00a0his delegation also voted in favour because of its respect for the Court, even though it has serious reservations about the use of the institution\u2019s advisory jurisdiction to bypass the need for States\u2019 consent.\u00a0 Calling for measures that have not been negotiated by the Israelis and Palestinians may only harden positions, he warned.<\/p>\n New Zealand supported the resolution, that country\u2019s delegate said, even though it is not perfect.\u00a0 The 12-month time frame set out in the resolution for Israeli withdrawal from the Occupied Palestinian Territory, is \u201cfrankly unrealistic\u201d, she said, adding: \u00a0\u201cHowever, in the next 12\u00a0months, we expect Israel to take meaningful steps towards compliance with international law.\u201d \u00a0The Palestinian Authority must also take meaningful steps to ensure political and security control of the occupied territories, she said.<\/p>\n However, several delegates who voted against the text said it fails to address the immense security challenges that Israel faces. \u00a0The representative of the Czech Republic\u00a0<\/strong>regretted that the text does not acknowledge Hamas\u2019 use of the Gaza Strip as a \u201claunching pad for its rampage of killing of Israelis while systematically using Palestinian civilians as human shields\u201d.\u00a0 A negotiated agreement is the best path to fostering a better future in the Middle East, he said, as did the representatives of Argentina and Hungary.<\/p>\n The speaker for Papua New Guinea said the draft demands that Israel make unilateral concessions without any reciprocal steps from the other parties involved. \u00a0Such unbalanced demands will perpetuate the conflict and reinforce views that the advisory opinion proceedings may have been biased, given the Court\u2019s sole focus on the actions of Israel, he added. \u00a0He also pointed to dissenting opinions from the Court judges.<\/p>\n A significant number of countries who abstained from today\u2019s vote expressed concerns about the language in the text itself \u2014 among these the delegates of\u00a0Canada, Bulgaria, Austria, Republic of Korea, Guatemala, India, Sweden, Italy,\u00a0<\/strong>Germany, Kiribati and Costa Rica. \u00a0While there is no doubt about the illegality of Israel\u2019s occupation, the representative of Switzerland said, the one-year timeline referenced in the text for the withdrawal of Israel does not acknowledge that country\u2019s legitimate security concerns.\u00a0 The representative of the United Kingdom said her delegation abstained because the text does not provide sufficient clarity to advance a negotiated solution. \u00a0Stressing that the reunification of Gaza and West Bank is a fundamental step towards a two-State solution, she also expressed concern about extremist Israeli settlers.<\/p>\n Australia\u2019s delegate\u00a0<\/strong>said: \u201cWe are concerned that, by making demands of the entire United Nations membership that go beyond the scope of the advisory opinion, the resolution distracts from what the world needs Israel to do.\u201d \u00a0His country has insisted that Israel must cease settlement activity and has sanctioned extremist Israeli settlers. \u00a0\u201cWe have not supplied weapons to Israel in at least the last five years,\u201d he added. However, Australia will continue to call out unilateral actions that it believes undermine the prospect for peace, he said, while the representative of the Netherlands pointed to reservations regarding operative paragraph 5b of the text.\u00a0 While it remains of utmost importance that Israel retains its ability to defend itself, this must be done in accordance with international law, including humanitarian law, she stressed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 18 September 2024 Tenth Emergency Special Session, 55th & 56th Meetings (AM & PM) Diverging on How Best to Resolve Crisis, Delegates Decide to Hold International Conference for Implementing UN Resolutions on Question of Palestine, Two-State Solution\u00a0 Adopting a historic text demanding that Israel brings to an end its unlawful presence in the Occupied […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":299,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"country":[],"document-category":[1329],"document-source":[1365],"committee-meeting":[],"document-subject":[1769,1741,1785,6975,1749],"entity":[1729],"document-language":[6542],"class_list":["post-301454","document","type-document","status-publish","hentry","document-category-press-release","document-source-general-assembly","document-subject-armed-conflict","document-subject-human-rights-and-international-humanitarian-law","document-subject-israeli-actions-in-occupied-east-jerusalem-and-the-rest-of-the-occupied-palestinian-territory","document-subject-israels-illegal-occupation","document-subject-palestine-question","entity-united-nations-system","document-language-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/301454","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/document"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/299"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/301454\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":301495,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/301454\/revisions\/301495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=301454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"country","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/country?post=301454"},{"taxonomy":"document-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-category?post=301454"},{"taxonomy":"document-source","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-source?post=301454"},{"taxonomy":"committee-meeting","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/committee-meeting?post=301454"},{"taxonomy":"document-subject","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-subject?post=301454"},{"taxonomy":"entity","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/entity?post=301454"},{"taxonomy":"document-language","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-language?post=301454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}