Palestinians Seek New UN Resolution Condemning Israel

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – The Palestinian Authority led by President Mahmoud Abbas is preparing a resolution against Israel’s settlements in the West Bank that it hopes will be passed at the 79th annual Session of the UN General Assembly which opens on September 10, the Jerusalem News Syndicate (JNS) reports.

With limited control under Israeli military rule, the PA governs some two million Palestinians living in parts of the West Bank, known in Biblical Times as Judea and Samaria. Jewish Israeli citizens have settled in other parts of the West Bank, an area which the PA contends should fully belong to a future Palestinian state.

In the latest effort to rebuke Israel for what the international community deems to be illegal Jewish settlements in the West Bank, the PA is drafting a UN resolution based on the advisory opinion issued by the UN’s International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague on July 19.

With an 11-4 majority, the ICJ ruled in that opinion that Jewish settlements and Israel’s presence in the West Bank and East Jerusalem are illegal under international law and must be withdrawn “as rapidly as possible.”

Israel views the United Nations and the ICJ with great suspicion as the international forum consistently condemns Israel more than all other nations put together. The Israeli government therefore chose not to participate in the proceedings before the court.

In a statement to JNS, Anne Herzberg, legal adviser at NGO Monitor, said the ICJ’s latest ruling “must be seen within the context of the ongoing war to eliminate Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people.”

“In addition to military action in every conflict, there is also a political warfare component, and this opinion is a clear part of this campaign,” Herzberg said.

“While less than half of U.N. member states sought this opinion, the Lebanese-led court [court President Nawaf Salam is Lebanese] has issued a wide-ranging, ahistorical opinion that completely erases the security reality, attacks Jewish self-determination rights and cultural heritage and eviscerates Oslo and the Middle East peace process.”

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