The United Nations has overwhelmingly adopted a resolution, which grants Palestinians permanent sovereignty over their natural resources in the Israeli-occupied territories, including East Jerusalem.
On Thursday, 19 November 2021, the Economic and Financial Committee of the UN General Assembly, also known as the Second Committee, endorsed a draft resolution entitled “Permanent Sovereignty of the Palestinian People in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and of the Arab population in the occupied Syrian Golan over their natural resources” by 157–7 votes, with 14 abstentions.
The United States, Israel, Canada, Nauru, Micronesia, the Marshall Islands and Palau voted against the motion.
The UN resolution reaffirms that Israel`s construction of the Separation Wall and illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank and strategic Syrian Golan Heights constitutes a violation of international law, and deprives Palestinian people of their natural resources.
It demanded Israel to abide by the decision of the International Court of Justice regarding the illegality of building the apartheid wall.
The resolution also demands “that Israel, the occupying power, cease the exploitation, damage, cause of loss or depletion and endangerment of natural resources in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and in the occupied Syrian Golan.”
The resolution also called on the Israeli regime to halt the dumping of all kinds of waste materials by extremist Jewish settlers in the occupied Palestinian and Syrian territories, which gravely threaten water and land resources of civilian populations, and pose environmental, sanitation and health threats to locals.
It also pointed to the United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334, adopted on 23 December 2016, which calls on states to distinguish in their dealings between Israeli communities and Palestinian lands occupied by Israel.
The resolution then called on the UN Secretary-General António Guterres to present at the next meeting a report on the implementation of the resolution, and the Israeli regime`s exploitation of Palestinian natural resources in the occupied territories.
The UN Security Council has condemned Israel’s settlement activities in the occupied territories in several resolutions.
More than 600,000 Israelis live in over 230 settlements built since the 1967 Israeli occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Photo: A view of UN General Assembly meeting at the UN Headquarters in New York City. Source: HLRN file.
