The U.N. General Assembly voted 137-12 on Thursday in favor of a Norway-drafted resolution calling for consultation with the International Court of Justice in The Hague to weigh in on the Jewish state’s humanitarian obligations in the Gaza Strip.
The vote, which drew 22 abstentions, turns the question over to the U.N. court for a non-binding advisory opinion about whether Israel is meeting requirements under international law to provide aid to civilians in Gaza.
The ICJ, which has criticized Israel in the past, has no mechanism with which to enforce its decisions, but the opinions it issues can carry political and diplomatic weight, and they can drive news cycles.
“This is the first time in history, that I’m aware of, when an armed force has facilitated aid deliveries into its enemy population while fighting at the same time, and they get criticized for this,” Richard Kemp, a retired British Army officer, said recently on the Jewish National Fund podcast. “But they’ve done a phenomenal job.”
The resolution, which the U.N. General Assembly adopted, expresses “grave concern about the dire humanitarian situation” in Gaza and “calls upon Israel to uphold and comply with its obligations not to impede the Palestinian people from exercising its right to self-determination.”
Israel removed its permanent military and civil presence in Gaza in 2005, but the United Nations, the ICJ and some other bodies say that the territory is still “occupied.” Using a definition of “occupation” that appears to apply uniquely to the Jewish state, they charge that Israel’s blockade on the Strip, after the Hamas terror group assumed power in Gaza, means it has full control over the territory.
The Biden administration has consistently stated that Israel is obligated to facilitate humanitarian aid to civilians in Gaza, and it has often criticized the Jewish state for what it says is shirking that responsibility.
Danny Danon, the Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, called the General Assembly a “diplomatic circus,” which adopted a resolution that “would have you choose to continue a cycle of hate.”
“We must take advantage of this rare, historic opportunity and free the world from the murderous Iranian regime,” Danon said.
The Israeli envoy called the debate over the resolution “the same recycled nonsense, where all that matters is attacking Israel and challenging its right to protect its citizens.”
Once viewed as a neutral broker in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Norway has taken increasingly anti-Israel steps in the course of the Jewish state’s war against Hamas.
The Scandinavian country filed the resolution in response to the Knesset’s passage, in late October, of a pair of laws that would shutter the activities of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency in Israel-controlled territory and order Israel to cease contact with the agency.
UNRWA, the Palestinian-only aid and social services agency, has been beset by documented evidence that some members of its staff participated in the Hamas terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, or otherwise have ties to Gazan terror groups, including Hamas.
The United Nations insists that UNRWA is the only agency that can carry out aid delivery in Gaza. Israel, which says that other U.N. agencies and other international organizations could accomplish that task, has often charged that it allows aid trucks into the Strip which then languish, unretrieved, inside of Gaza.
Chile, Egypt, Guyana, Indonesia, Ireland, Jordan, Malaysia, Namibia, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Slovenia, South Africa and Spain co-sponsored the resolution.
Argentina, Czechia, Fiji, Hungary, Israel, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Tonga and the United States voted against it.
Notably, Australia and Canada abstained, rather than voting for the resolution. Erstwhile allies of Israel, both have taken antagonistic postures against Jerusalem at the United Nations of late.
Gideon Saar, Israel’s foreign minister, reportedly held a furious call with his Australian counterpart, Penny Wong, on Tuesday, accusing the Australian government of turning its back on Israel.
Under embattled premier Justin Trudeau, Canada has been besieged by antisemitic attacks during the war, leading to a phone call on Thursday between Trudeau and Israeli President Isaac Herzog, following the firebombing of a Montreal synagogue this week. On Friday morning, there was a shooting at a Chabad girls’ school in Toronto for the third time in recent months.