Israel slams landmark vote, supported by 142 member states, as ‘disgraceful’ as it continues to pound Gaza.
The United Nations General Assembly has overwhelmingly backed a resolution reviving a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine, less than 24 hours after Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said there would never be a Palestinian state.
The “New York Declaration”, which outlines “tangible, timebound, and irreversible steps” towards a two-state solution, was adopted on Friday by 142 votes in favour, 10 against – including Israel and key ally the United States – and 12 abstentions.
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Presented by France and Saudi Arabia, the seven-page document calls for “collective action to end the war in Gaza, to achieve a just, peaceful and lasting settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict based on the effective implementation of the Two-State solution”.
It also orders Palestinian group Hamas, which runs the government in Gaza, to “free all hostages”, stipulating that it must “end its rule in Gaza and hand over its weapons to the Palestinian Authority … in line with the objective of a sovereign and independent Palestinian State”.
Palestine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs welcomed Saudi-French efforts to create an “actionable plan” towards a two-state solution. The ministry also called for “activating all mechanisms to end the Israeli colonial occupation” and “achieve the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people”.
Attempt to ‘take negotiation process forward’
The UN’s ringing endorsement of the two-state solution came amid Israel’s continued bombardment of Gaza, one day after Netanyahu signed off on a settlement expansion plan in the occupied West Bank that would make any future Palestinian state virtually impossible.
Reporting from New York, media’s Kristen Saloomey said that the vote showed “an incredible amount of pushback from the international community”.
“This shows mounting concern over a lack of progress on … talks, and an attempt by the international community to take the negotiation process forward,” she said.
The vote precedes an upcoming UN summit co-chaired by Riyadh and Paris on September 22 in New York, in which French President Emmanuel Macron and several other leaders have promised to formally recognise the Palestinian state.
While 146 members of the UN already back a Palestinian state, another 10 or so, including France, Norway, Spain, Ireland and the United Kingdom are expected to join their ranks later this month.
“Crucially, European nations who have been more reluctant to do so under the pressure of the United States and Israel, [are] showing the concerns that the situation on the ground there is becoming all the more dire, no progress is being made,” said media’s Saloomey.
Israel derailing peace efforts
Israel rejected the declaration after the landmark vote, slamming it as “disgraceful”.
The vote has “proven how much the General Assembly is a political circus detached from reality”, said Israel’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Oren Marmorstein in a post on X, criticising the resolution for not calling Hamas a “terrorist organisation”.
The vote took place in a week in which Israel has been on particularly bellicose form, dialling up regional tensions with a number of deadly strikes across the Middle East, targeting Lebanon, Yemen, Syria, Tunisia and Qatar in parallel with its attacks on Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
On Thursday, UN Security Council members condemned Israel for its strike on lead mediator Qatar, which killed five members of Hamas in Doha, who were discussing a new deal proposed by US President Donald Trump.
Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani, who had flown in for the UNSC emergency session, had blasted Israel’s leaders as “arrogant”, adding that the timing of the attacks during mediation efforts showed that the country intended to derail them.
As the UN voted on Friday to advance the two-state solution, people in the Gaza Strip continued to endure heavy artillery fire and bombing from Israeli forces, with Friday’s death toll hitting 59 just after the results were announced.
The Israeli army said it had completed five waves of air strikes on Gaza City this week as part of its takeover plan, targeting more than 500 sites. It said it would “continue to intensify the pace of strikes in a focused manner … with the aim of hitting Hamas’ infrastructure”.
