“The way to resolve the conflict does not pass through the corridors of the UN or other international organizations,” he assured Israel.
Israel rejected this Saturday a United Nations resolutionto request the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to rule on the occupation and annexation of Palestinian territories, and warned of a possible “escalation” of violence.
“Israel strongly rejects the Palestinian resolution at the United Nations”, outgoing Prime Minister Yair Lapid said in a statementestimating that “the way to resolve the conflict does not pass through the corridors of the UN or other international organizations”.
At the request of the Palestinian National Authority, the UN Special Political and Decolonization Committee voted on Friday to ask the ICJ for an opinion on the legal status of Israel’s “protracted occupation, settlement and annexation of the occupied Palestinian territory [West Bank and Gaza] since 1967”.
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Despite opposition from Israel and the United States,the text went ahead with 98 votes in favor, 17 against and 52 abstentions, and will go to the plenary session of the General Assembly for final adoption.
“We ask all the countries that supported the proposal yesterday that they reconsider their position and oppose it when it is voted on in the General Assembly”, insisted Lapid, who has previously advocated a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The UN resolution is “another unilateral Palestinian move” that “can harm any possibility of a future process”, stressed the prime minister, warning that this “will not change the reality on the ground” and that “can even cause an escalation” of violence.
The occupied West Bank is experiencing its bloodiest year since 2006, with more than 140 Palestinians killed – many of them civilians or children – in violent incidents with Israel, according to figures from the Palestinian Ministry of Health; while on the Israeli side, 24 victims of attacks have died, 17 of them civilians.
After the Six-Day War in 1967, Israel occupied the Gaza Strip, which was then Egypt’s, the Heights of the Syria’s Golan, and took the West Bank from Jordan. East Jerusalem was also annexed in 1980. All of this is considered illegal by the UN and by much of the international community.
Since then, the level of violence in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has fluctuated: while Palestinian militias attacks are planned, Israel imposes a policy of military occupation with incursions throughout the Palestinian territory, promotes settlements of Jewish settlers and, according to various international organizations, violates the human rights of Palestinians in their own territory.
However, Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz assured on Twitter that the UN resolution “is a political step that is not anchored in the reality on the ground” and that “it will only harm stability in the region”.