UN vote would make Jerusalem’s Old City, Judea and Samaria Jew-free

Jerusalem’s Old City and Judea and Samaria must be Jew-free within a year, according to a Palestinian-drafted resolution, which the UN General Assembly passed on Wednesday, JNS reports.

The resolution, which passed by a 124-14 margin with 43 abstentions, is meant to give force to a July advisory opinion by the International Court of Justice, which declared Israeli presence to be illegal in any area over the 1949 armistice line.

More than 40 countries sponsored the resolution, which was the first that Palestinians filed after being granted unprecedented privileges, for a non-U.N. member, earlier this year.

The resolution calls on the Israel Defense Forces to withdraw completely from Judea and Samaria, east Jerusalem (where the Old City is located), and Gaza within 12 months. This would mean evacuating all Jewish communities entire communities, including Jerusalem’s Old City which has been populated by Jews for 3,000 years.

The resolution text lacks any mention of Israeli security concerns, historic and biblical ties to the lands or Hamas’s terror attacks in Israel on Oct. 7.

The vote came after a day of debate on Tuesday.

Argentina, Czechia, Fiji, Hungary, Malawi, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Tonga, Tuvalu and the United States joined Israel in opposing the resolution.

Germany, the United Kingdom, Canada, Italy, Ukraine and Australia were among those who abstained instead of supporting Israel.

The resolution’s passage on Wednesday is expected to be used in international courts and other fora to seek additional action against the Jewish state.

‘Further fuel on worldwide antisemitism’

Danny Danon, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, called it “a shameful decision that backs the Palestinian Authority’s diplomatic terrorism.”

He added that the General Assembly “continues to dance to the music of the Palestinian Authority, which backs the Hamas murderers.”

Before the vote, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres told reporters he would back the implementation of the resolution should it pass.

Arsen Ostrovsky and Nadav Steinman, CEO and board chair respectively of the International Legal Forum, stated that “today, simply put, the United Nations has become the diplomatic arm of Hamas” and that the resolution “is just the latest in a litany of obscenely one-sided anti-Israel resolutions at the U.N. since Oct. 7.”

“All it does is reward the murderers, rapists and abductors of Hamas while pouring further fuel on worldwide antisemitism and eroding whatever remaining credibility of the already problematic and politicized International Court of Justice, upon which this resolution is meant to be based,” they added. “Ultimately, peace will only prevail when Hamas is defeated and the hostages are released, not through tiresome antics and pyrrhic Palestinian ‘victories’ at the U.N.”

–JNS.org | Used with permission