UN General Assembly passes resolution calling for Jerusalem Old City to be Jew-free
The Palestinian-fronted resolution passed by wide margin, demanding that the Israeli army and Jewish residents evacuate to pre-1949 line within a year.
Jerusalem’s Old City, in addition to Judea and Samaria, must be Judenrein within a year, according to a Palestinian-drafted resolution, which the U.N. General Assembly passed on Wednesday.
The resolution, which passed by a 124-14 margin with 43 abstentions, is meant to give force to a July advisory opinion by the International Court of Justice, which declared Israeli presence to be illegal in any area over the 1949 armistice line.
More than 40 countries sponsored the resolution, which was the first that Palestinians filed after being granted unprecedented privileges, for a non-U.N. member, earlier this year.
The resolution calls on the Israel Defense Forces to withdraw completely from Judea and Samaria, eastern Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip within 12 months, which means evacuating all Jewish communities beyond the armistice line, including Jerusalem’s Old City.
It also bans arms sales to the IDF of any equipment that would be expected reasonably to be used in the territory over the 1949 lines and calls for a boycott of all products produced by Jews in those areas.
The resolution text lacks any mention of Israeli security concerns, historic ties to the lands or Hamas’s terror attacks in Israel on Oct. 7.
The vote came after a day of debate on Tuesday.
Argentina, Czechia, Fiji, Hungary, Malawi, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Tonga, Tuvalu and the United States joined Israel in opposing the resolution.
Notably, Germany, the United Kingdom, Canada, Italy, Ukraine and Australia were among those who abstained.
General Assembly resolutions have no legal force, but the resolution’s passage on Wednesday is expected to be used in international courts and other fora to seek additional action against the Jewish state.
It is widely expected that the Palestinians will request that the U.N. Security Council take up the issue. Security Council resolutions are binding, but the United States would be expected to thwart such an effort, including with its veto power.
Danny Danon, Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, addresses the resumed 10th Emergency Special Session of the General Assembly on “Illegal Israeli actions in occupied East Jerusalem and the rest of the Occupied Palestinian Territory” on Sept. 17, 2024.
‘Further fuel on worldwide antisemitism’
Danny Danon, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, called it “a shameful decision that backs the Palestinian Authority’s diplomatic terrorism.”
He added that the General Assembly “continues to dance to the music of the Palestinian Authority, which backs the Hamas murderers.”
Before the vote, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres told reporters he would back the implementation of the resolution should it pass.
Seth Riklin and Daniel Mariaschin, president and CEO, respectively, of B’nai B’rith International, said the international nonprofit is “appalled” by the “atrocious” resolution.
“B’nai B’rith International strongly condemns the U.N. General Assembly’s passage of the first resolution officially sponsored by Palestinians days after they became the first non-member state group further upgraded to many member state privileges at the U.N. General Assembly, despite the world body’s own rules and practices,” they said.
“Coming from an assembly in which Arab and other pro-Palestinian governments wield an automatic majority to annually condemn Israel more than all other countries combined, the motion is unprecedented in its shamelessly one-sided endorsement of Palestinian claims and political demands, and further erodes the U.N.’s credibility as a serious contributor to promoting conflict-resolution and universal human rights,” they added.
“Shame on all countries that enabled this atrocious affront to justice and peace as part of the latest UNGA ’emergency session’ on the Middle East that does nothing to help seriously address and settle the emergency,” Riklin and Mariaschin said.
The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations condemned the “biased and dangerous” resolution strongly, Harriet Schleifer and William Daroff, chair and CEO respectively said. They called it “the latest salvo in an obsessive, decades-long campaign against Israel.”
“Attempting to isolate Israel in this manner is undoubtedly a threat to her national security as she faces terror threats on all sides and offensive to her status as the only democracy in the Middle East and therefore cannot be accepted by the international community,” they added.
Arsen Ostrovsky and Nadav Steinman, CEO and board chair, respectively, of the International Legal Forum, stated that “today, simply put, the United Nations has become the diplomatic arm of Hamas” and that the resolution “is just the latest in a litany of obscenely one-sided anti-Israel resolutions at the U.N. since Oct. 7.”
“All it does is reward the murderers, rapists and abductors of Hamas while pouring further fuel on worldwide antisemitism and eroding whatever remaining credibility of the already problematic and politicized International Court of Justice, upon which this resolution is meant to be based,” they added. “Ultimately, peace will only prevail when Hamas is defeated and the hostages are released, not through tiresome antics and pyrrhic Palestinian ‘victories’ at the U.N.”
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