New York— Following a long debate on Tuesday, the United Nations General Assembly has adopted two resolutions against Israel, one concerning the occupied Syrian Golan and the other the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
On Palestine, the resolution, titled “Peaceful settlement of the question of Palestine”, by a recorded vote of 151 in favor to 11 against, with 11 abstentions. Through it, the Assembly stressed the need for urgent, collective efforts to launch credible negotiations on all final status issues in the Middle East peace process and called for the timely convening of an international conference in Moscow, as envisioned by Security Council resolution 1850 (2008), to advance a just, lasting and comprehensive peace settlement.
On the Syrian Golan, the Assembly’ resolution, titled “The Syrian Golan,” was adopted by a recorded vote of 123 in favour to 7 against (Federated States of Micronesia, Israel, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Tonga, United States), with 41 abstentions.
By its terms, the Assembly declared that Israel’s 14 December 1981 decision to impose its laws, jurisdiction and administration on the occupied Syrian Golan is null and void and called for its rescission. Further, the Assembly demanded that Israel withdraw from the occupied Syrian Golan to the line of 4 June 1967.
The Assembly demand that Israel comply strictly with its obligations under international law, including by ending its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and ceasing all new settlement activities.
The Assembly also rejected any attempt at demographic or territorial change in Gaza and stressed the importance of unifying the Strip with the West Bank under the Palestinian Authority.
Additionally, the Assembly called for Israel’s withdrawal from the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967 and for the realization of the Palestinian people’s inalienable rights — primarily the right to self-determination.
Annalena Baerbock (Germany), President of the General Assembly at its eightieth session, said “for 78 years, the Palestinian people have been denied their inalienable rights — in particular, their right to self-determination.”
Baerbock stressed that “all that has happened over the last two years has “underlined what we have known since decades”, and that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict cannot be resolved through occupation or annexation, and that the two will only live in lasting peace when they live side-by-side in two sovereign and independent States.
“So we know what we have to do,” she urged, underscoring that self-determination is “not a privilege to be earned, but a right to be upheld”.
Senegal’s representative, who introduced the draft, said that this “updated” text welcomes recent developments and reaffirms the “legal, diplomatic and operational bases” that are “essential” for a just, lasting, comprehensive and peaceful settlement of the Palestinian question.
He emphasized that the resolution further reaffirms the need to protect civilians and guarantee humanitarian access, also calling on Member States to fully respect their international obligations. It underscores that this conflict remains “tragically unresolved”, and he said that the draft, therefore, “provides a clear framework to transform our solidarity into a strategy”.