The U.N. General Assembly is set to vote on a draft resolution that calls on Israel to evacuate its citizens and troops from Judea, Samaria, Gaza, and eastern Jerusalem, as well as on other countries to stop providing Israel with any weapons.
If adopted, the document, submitted last week by the Palestinian Authority, 19 Muslim-majority countries and others, would signify an escalation from previous anti-Israel language endorsed by the General Assembly.
Israel should be “ceasing immediately all new settlement activity, evacuating all settlers from the Occupied Palestinian Territory,” reads the draft resolution, whose co-submitters included Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Turkey, Mauritania and Oman alongside Chile, Colombia, Nicaragua, North Korea, South Africa and Uganda and others.
Israeli officials have crafted a series of escalating countermoves, from freezing funds to cutting security ties with the P.A., should the U.N. adopt the proposed resolutions.
Previous General Assembly resolutions, including the 2022 one on the “permanent sovereignty of the Palestinian people in the Occupied Palestinian Territory,” also condemned what the forum termed illegal Israeli settler activity, but did not contain a demand to expel that population of about 500,000 people.
The language about deportations comes from the July 19 advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice, which the draft resolution cites.
The draft further calls on the world to “take steps towards ceasing the importation of any products originating in the Israeli settlements, as well as the provision or transfer of arms, munitions, and related equipment to Israel, the occupying Power, in all cases where there are reasonable grounds to suspect that they may be used in the Occupied Palestinian Territory” and to “implement sanctions, including travel bans and asset freezes, against natural and legal persons engaged in the maintenance of Israel’s unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including in relation to settler violence.”
Danny Danon, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, condemned the draft resolution at a plenum debate on Tuesday. It “ignores the Hamas terror attack of Oct. 7, ignores Israel’s legitimate security concerns and seeks to remove Israel’s ability to protect itself,” he said.
Some 30 Republican senators also condemned the document, calling it “an absolute disgrace that rewards terrorism.” The language, they wrote, is “targeting the Jewish State of Israel and its rightful control over its historic homeland,” the statement said. It noted the atrocities committed by Hamas on Oct. 7, and recommended that “Instead of proposing biased and counter-productive initiatives, which will do nothing to advance a lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians, the international community must focus its energy and resources on ensuring Hamas and other terrorist groups are completely destroyed.”
Cosignatories of the statement included Marco Rubio (R-FL), Tom Cotton (R-AR), Tim Scott (R-SC), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), John Kennedy (R-LA), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), J.D. Vance (R-OH), Josh Hawley (R-MO), Roger Wicker (R-MS), John Cornyn (R-TX), and Katie Boyd Britt (R-AL).
Last week, the P.A. took a seat among member states at the U.N. General Assembly despite not being a full member of the body. The so-called State of Palestine has been defined since 2012 as a “non-member observer state” along with the Vatican. But it gained the right to submit proposals and amendments and sit among member states in a resolution adopted in May. At the United Nations, the Palestinians are still not able to vote or be a member of the Security Council.
