Just invested by the Knesset, the new Israeli government experienced its first setbacks without delay. On Friday, December 30, 2022, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution to ask the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to study the question of the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories.
The text specifically urges the UN Court based in The Hague to determine “the legal consequences of Israel’s continued violation of the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination” as well as its measures “aimed at altering the demographic composition, character and status of the Holy City of Jerusalem”.
The Arab countries unanimous
The text, promoted by the Palestinian Authority, was adopted quite broadly by 87 votes for, 26 against (including the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany) and 53 abstentions (including France). If Westerners showed their divisions, the Arab countries, including those which normalized their relations with the Jewish State within the framework of the Abraham agreements (the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco) unanimously voted to. Just like China and Russia, even though Vladimir Putin and Benyamin Netanyahu maintain privileged relations.
This vote has all the trappings of a victory for the Palestinians. Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian representative to the UN, thanked the States which did not leave “to deter by threats and pressure”. The resolution, he said, sends a signal to the most right-wing government in Israel’s history, eager to strengthen policies “colonial and racist”.
“The UNGA vote and the support of 87 countries requesting an advisory legal opinion from the ICJ on the nature of the occupation in the occupied Palestinian territories reflects the victory of Palestinian diplomacy, led by the president, who suffered pressure to withdraw or postpone the decision, but who refused”, also have tweeted Fatah Secretary General Hussein Al-Sheikh.
An “illegitimate” decision for Israel
Since then, Israeli officials have not taken off. Benyamin Netanyahu, returned to power after eighteen months in opposition, split a video to denounce the UN vote. “The Jewish people are not an occupier in their own land nor an occupier in our eternal capital Jerusalem, and no UN resolution can distort this historic truth,” he said, adding that Israel was not bound by this “despicable decision”.
Ahead of the vote, Israeli Ambassador Gilad Erdan had already described the resolution as “moral stain on the UN”. “No international organization can decide whether the Jewish people are occupiers in their own native land, he said. Any decision of a judicial organization that receives its mandate from a politicized and morally bankrupt United Nations is completely illegitimate. »
“Making pay” Mahmoud Abbas
If it also calls on the Jewish state to put an end to the colonies, this resolution of the General Assembly is not binding and the International Court of Justice generally takes one to two years to issue an opinion. But it represents a challenge for a government which has in its ranks several ministers, including Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, resolutely in favor of colonization, and whose program emphasizes its expansion in the occupied West Bank.
In an interview with Reshet Bet radio on Saturday, Danny Danon, the country’s former ambassador to the United Nations, said that Israel should ” make someone pay “ this resolution to the President of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas. He believes that the octogenarian from Ramallah is doing “diplomatic terrorism” against Israel. “We can make it difficult for them and hurt them. It has to be done “, he added.