Edith Lederer
AP / August 23, 2024
UNITED NATIONS – The Palestinians said Thursday they are planning to introduce a U.N. General Assembly resolution in September enshrining the recent sweeping ruling by the U.N.’s top court that declared Israel’s presence in the occupied Palestinian territories unlawful — and setting a time frame for it to end.
Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian U.N. ambassador, told the U.N. Security Council that the resolution, which would not be legally binding, is essential to spur the end of Israel’s occupation.
“We are sick and tired of waiting,” he said. “The time for waiting is over.”
The International Court of Justice on July 19 issued an unprecedented, sweeping condemnation of Israel’s rule o ver the lands it captured 57 years ago. It called for the occupation to end and for settlement construction to stop immediately.
Israel captured the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza Strip in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians seek all three areas for an independent state.
Israeli Ambassador Danny Danon, who spoke to the council after Mansour, made no mention of the Palestinians’ plan or the court ruling. But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denounced the nonbinding opinion by the court’s 15 judges, saying the territories are part of the Jewish people’s historic homeland.
Netanyahu stressed in a statement that “the Jewish people are not conquerors in their own land” — not in their capital Jerusalem or West Bank lands. “No false decision in The Hague will distort this historical truth, and likewise the legality of Israeli settlement in all the territories of our homeland cannot be contested,” he said.
The court said the General Assembly and Security Council — staunch Israeli ally the United States holds a veto in the latter — should consider “precise modalities” to end Israel’s presence in the territories.
Mansour did not disclose the time frame the Palestinians are planning to include in the General Assembly resolution.
He said the resolution will be “a significant step” toward a two-state solution in which independent states of Israel and Palestine live side-by-side in peace.
Netanyahu, who leads a far-right government opposed to Palestinian statehood, has repeatedly stated his longstanding opposition to a two-state solution, which the United States supports. He has said a Palestinian state would become a launching pad for attacks on Israel.
Mansour also told the council that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has declared his intention to visit Gaza and has called for world leaders, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, and leaders of the 15 Security Council nations to join him. He wants them “to see first-hand the horrors our people are enduring” and to demand a halt to the nearly 11-month war between Israel and Hamas, Mansour said.
The war was sparked by the Oct. 7 invasion of southern Israel by Hamas and other militants that killed about 1,200 people and saw about 250 people taken hostage. More than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants.
Israel controls access to the Gaza Strip, and Mansour called on the council and U.N. chief to push to secure Abbas’ ability to reach Gaza.
Danon said that “Gaza stands at a crossroads” and unless Hamas is ousted the territory has no future.
“The defeat of Hamas will enable Gaza civilians to chart their own destiny in partnership with the most successful countries in the region,” he said.
