The vote is welcomed by the Palestinians as the beginning of a new era in which Israel will be held responsible for its war crimes.
A Palestinian draft resolution asking the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for an advisory opinion on Israel’s occupation of Palestinian lands since 1967 was approved by the UN’s decolonization committee on Friday.
Israel rejected the proposal, while the Palestinians applauded it.
In a statement, Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki noted that 98 nations voted in favor of the resolution, 52 abstained, and 17 voted against it.
The decisions of the ICJ, which arbitrates international conflicts, are not legally binding.
Al-Maliki praised the vote and called the settlement a “diplomatic and legal breakthrough” that would “open a new era for holding Israel accountable for its war crimes.”
For a final vote before the year is over, the resolution will now go before the 193-member General Assembly.
End of occupation
The ICJ is asked to “urgently” weigh in on Israel’s “prolonged occupation, settlement, and annexation of the Palestinian territory,” which the UN’s New York headquarters deemed to be a violation of the Palestinians’ right to self-determination. The West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem were mentioned in relation to the Palestinian territories that Israel has been occupying since the 1967 conflict.
It also referred to measures intended to “alter the demographic composition, character, and status of the holy city of Jerusalem.” The resolution requests the court’s judgment on how these Israeli policies and practices “affect the legal status of the occupation and what are the legal effects that arise for all states and the United Nations from this status.”
In 2004, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that a wall Israel had constructed, mostly inside the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, was “contrary to international law.”
Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian ambassador to the UN, cited Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ speech at the annual General Assembly meeting in September, in which he called for the mobilization of “all the components of our international law-based order, including international justice,” after the vote.
Mansour thanked the nations that had backed the resolution and declared that “nothing justifies standing with Israeli occupation and annexation, its displacement and dispossession of our people.”
“Freedom is a right for our people,” he declared. “This job must come to an end. “.
The Palestinian flag will eventually be flown over the churches, mosques, and Haram al-Sharif in Jerusalem, according to Mansour.
Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, argued that by requesting the ICJ, the Palestinians were “decimating any chances of reconciliation” and that this was why he opposed the vote.
In his remarks to the forum, he asked, “The Palestinians have rejected every single peace initiative, and now they involve an outside party with the justification that the conflict has not been resolved?
An advisory opinion from the ICJ is “counterproductive and will only take the parties further away from the objective we all share of a negotiated two-state solution,” according to the US deputy representative to the United States, which voted against the resolution.
