Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid sent a letter on Monday to more than 50 world leaders calling on them to prevent a vote next month in the United Nations General Assembly on whether to task the International Court of Justice with issuing an advisory opinion on the legality of Israel’s military presence in Judea and Samaria.
In the letter, Lapid emphasized that should the vote go ahead, he expects Israel’s allies to stand alongside Jerusalem and vote against the resolution.
“This resolution is the outcome of a concerted effort to single out Israel, to discredit our legitimate security concerns, and to delegitimize our very existence,” wrote Lapid, according to a statement from his office.
He added that the status of the disputed territory should be subject to negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, and that bringing the matter before the ICJ would contravene the principle of direct talks accepted by the international community, while playing into the hands of extremists.
The letter was sent to world leaders from, among other countries, the United Kingdom, France, Croatia, Romania, Bulgaria, The Netherlands, Slovakia, Latvia, Georgia, Brazil, Uruguay, Peru and Vietnam.
Lapid earlier this month condemned the UNGA Fourth Committee’s adoption of an anti-Israel motion calling for the urgent rendering of an “advisory opinion” on Israel’s “prolonged occupation, settlement and annexation of Palestinian territory.”
At the time, Lapid said in a statement that “Israel strongly rejects the Palestinian resolution at the United Nations,” describing it as “another unilateral Palestinian move which undermines the basic principles for resolving the conflict and may harm any possibility for a future process. The Palestinians want to replace negotiations with unilateral steps. They are again using the United Nations to attack Israel.”
