The U.N. General Assembly voted on Sept. 12 to adopt the so-called New York Declaration on the Peaceful Settlement of the Question of Palestine, which outlines the implementation of a two-state solution and the path towards recognition of a Palestinian state.
The margin of the vote was 142-10, with 12 abstentions. Israel and the United States opposed the measure, as did Argentina, Hungary, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay and Tonga.
“This one-sided declaration will not be remembered as a step toward peace, only as another hollow gesture that weakens this assembly’s credibility,” stated Danny Danon, the Israeli ambassador to the United Nations.
“This is not diplomacy,” he said. “It is theater.”
Danon accused the General Assembly of “trying to force through the back door what cannot stand at the negotiating table.”
The declaration was first published in late July during a conference led by France and Saudi Arabia intended to expand recognition of a Palestinian state.
While the document marks the first time the Arab League and its member states condemned Hamas and expressed that the terror group must no longer govern the Gaza Strip, it also condemns “the attacks by Israel against civilians in Gaza and civilian infrastructure” that have “resulted in a devastating humanitarian catastrophe and protection crisis.”
The declaration states that the war must end and Hamas must disarm and submit to the Palestinian Authority, which will run the Palestinian state. France and Saudi Arabia, the co-chairs of the U.N. event in July, signed the declaration, as did Brazil, Canada, Egypt, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Mexico, Norway, Qatar, Senegal, Spain, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the European Union and the League of Arab States.
Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority leader who is in the 20th year of his four-year term, penned a letter to French President Emmanuel Macron on June 9 in which he said that a Palestinian state would be demilitarized—a long-standing demand of Israel’s.
The 17 signatories of the declaration also welcomed the Palestinian leader’s “commitment to holding democratic and transparent general and presidential elections” within a year. Abbas has pledged several times during his tenure to hold elections but canceled them repeatedly, often blaming Israel.
Under the declaration, Palestinian political parties engaging in the elections would be required to respect the political platform of the Palestine Liberation Organization, which Washington designated as a terrorist organization in 1987. While subsequent presidential waivers allowed contact between the PLO and the United States, the Trump administration shuttered the PLO mission in the U.S. capital in 2018.
The declaration also states that “Palestine” is to be lauded for its “efforts to modernize” its school curricula to fight “radicalization, incitement, dehumanization, violent extremism conducive to terrorism, discrimination and hate speech.” It “called on Israel to undertake a similar effort,” it said.
Danon said the only beneficiary of the declaration is Hamas, which praised France and other countries upon their announcements this summer that recognition of a Palestinian state would be forthcoming and viewed the recognition as the fruits of their massacre in Israel.
“When terrorists are the ones cheering, you are not advancing peace,” Danon said. “You are advancing terror.”
