UN votes against Israeli occupation of Palestine: will anything change? | News about the Israel-Palestine conflict

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Most countries have backed a United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) resolution setting a deadline for Israel to end its illegal occupation of Palestinian territory amid mounting international criticism of Israel.

The resolution, passed on Wednesday, is not legally binding but includes harsh criticism of Israel and won the support of many Western nations that have traditionally backed Israel.

It was the first time in UN history that Palestine submitted its own draft resolution for a vote in the 193-member General Assembly, thanks to the greater rights and privileges it received – even as an observer state – following a May resolution.

What does the resolution say?

The resolution demands that “Israel cease without delay its illegal presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, which constitutes a continuing unlawful act entailing its international responsibility, and do so within 12 months at the latest.”

The resolution calls on Israel to comply with international law and withdraw its military forces, immediately cease all new settlement activity, evacuate all settlers from occupied lands and dismantle parts of the separation wall it built inside the occupied West Bank.

It says Israel must return land and other “real estate,” as well as all assets confiscated since the occupation began in 1967 and all property and cultural assets taken from Palestinians and Palestinian institutions.

The resolution also demands that Israel allow all Palestinians displaced during the occupation to return to their places of origin and to repair the damage caused by its occupation.

(Al Jazeera)

What does the underlying ICJ ruling say?

The UNGA document was based on an advisory opinion issued by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in July that declared the occupation illegal and said all states are obliged not to “render aid or assistance to its maintenance.”

The world’s top court has ruled that Israel is “abusing its status as an occupying power” by building and expanding settlements, using natural resources in the area, annexing and imposing permanent controls over land and undermining the Palestinians’ right to self-determination.

The court issued the opinion after the General Assembly requested it in 2022 and while the UN and the vast majority of the international community consider the Palestinian territory to be occupied by Israel.

Israel captured the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem in the six-day Arab-Israeli war in 1967.

It was forced to withdraw from Gaza under international pressure in 2005, but maintained a land, sea and air blockade on the enclave.

What do the votes show?

The resolution was approved by 124 UN member states, with 43 abstentions and 14 rejections.

Against: The list of countries opposing the resolution includes Israel and its main ally, the United States. Argentina, which had recognized the Palestinian state in 2010, has changed its position under current President Javier Milei and has become one of Israel’s staunchest diplomatic supporters. It also opposed the resolution. Paraguay is the only other country in the Americas that voted against the resolution.

Hungary and the Czech Republic were the only European countries to vote no, along with Malawi in Africa and several Pacific island countries.

For: France, Spain, Finland and Portugal were among the main European countries that voted in favour. Other countries that supported the initiative were Japan, China, Russia and Brazil. Overall, almost all of Africa, Europe, Asia and Latin America voted in favour.

Abstentions: India’s decision to abstain marked its break with the rest of the BRICS group of major countries in the Global South, and with all of South Asia except Nepal. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu considers his Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi, a close friend. Under Modi — who in 2017 became the first Indian prime minister to visit Israel — ties between the nations have grown substantially, as New Delhi has slowly moved away from its traditionally staunch support for Palestine.

Since the start of the Gaza war, Israel’s Western allies have either abstained or voted against UN resolutions seeking to protect Palestinians or hold Israel accountable. Even watered-down binding resolutions passed by the UN Security Council have not been implemented.

Wednesday’s vote also saw considerably more abstentions than some previous votes, including a vote on the Gaza ceasefire at the General Assembly in December.

Does Israel’s “right to defend itself” extend to occupation?

All sovereign nations have the right to defend themselves against attacks, an argument Israel’s allies have consistently emphasized to justify the killing of tens of thousands of people in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip since Hamas’s Oct. 7 attacks on Israel.

The United States, along with allies that abstained during Wednesday’s vote (including Australia, Canada, Germany and Ukraine) said they could not vote in favor of a resolution that did not specify Israel’s right to defend itself.

But they did not explain how the occupation was necessary for Israel to defend itself.

The US mission to the UN said it believes Israeli settlements on occupied land are “incompatible with international law” and that Washington “respects” the role of the ICJ, but considers the document “a unilateral resolution that selectively interprets the essence of the ICJ opinion and does not promote what we all want to see, namely progress towards two states living in peace, side by side.”

Washington said the resolution promotes a “false” idea that a text adopted in New York can resolve the complex conflict.

But UN special rapporteurs, a wide range of international law experts and several countries have said Israel cannot claim to defend itself as an occupying power that actively kills Palestinian civilians or deprives them of basic needs.

The ICJ also ruled in an advisory opinion in 2004 that Israel could not invoke the right to self-defense in an occupied territory when the court was reviewing Israel’s construction of the separation wall in the West Bank on alleged security grounds.

Israel’s right to self-defence is a difficult issue that remains divisive, according to James Devaney, a senior lecturer at the University of Glasgow’s School of Law.

He explained that the ICJ has in the past insisted that the inherent right of States to self-defence in international law relates to defence against other States.

“While many states express support for a broader right to self-defence also in relation to non-state actors, the question of Palestinian statehood is of course linked to these issues. I would therefore argue that the question of self-defence is a difficult legal question on whose effects certain states can legitimately disagree and which can also serve as a pretext for states to vote in a way that aligns with their political positions,” Devaney told Al Jazeera.

Will this change anything in practice?

The non-binding resolution cannot be implemented and is therefore unlikely to change anything for Palestinians in the occupied territories in the foreseeable future, analysts said.

Devaney said that while the General Assembly resolution sets a deadline for Israel to leave the occupied Palestinian territory, that fact does not change the unenforceable nature of the resolution.

“This 12-month period has political significance and may play a role in future political and procedural steps taken at the UN, but in my view it does not change anything in terms of the legal effect of the resolution or the advisory opinion,” he said.

Meanwhile, Palestinians continue to be killed, maimed or detained without charge on a daily basis in Gaza and the West Bank, and violence by both the Israeli military and settlers has increased dramatically.

Israeli forces have also been demolishing Palestinian structures – or forcing Palestinians to do so themselves for fear of fines and arrest – at a rapidly increasing rate since the start of the Gaza war.

According to the latest figures, since the UN began recording these data in 2009, at least 11,560 Palestinian structures have been demolished and 18,667 people have been displaced. In 2024 alone, more than 1,250 structures have been destroyed.


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