At the United Nations resolution on November 9, India voted against the forced Israeli settlements in “Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and in the occupied Syrian Golan”. Seven countries, including the United States Canada, Hungary, Israel, Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia and Nauru, opposed the resolution while 18 chose to abstain from voting.
India was among the 145 nations that voted in favour of the resolution along with Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, France, Japan, Malaysia, Maldives, Russia, South Africa, Sri Lanka and the UK.
The resolution “Condemns” “settlement activities in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and in the occupied Syrian Golan and any activities involving the confiscation of land, the disruption of the livelihood of protected persons, the forced transfer of civilians and the annexation of land, whether de facto or through national legislation.”
The resolution “Reaffirms that the Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and in the occupied Syrian Golan are illegal and an obstacle to peace and economic and social development.”
The resolution reiterated “its demand for the immediate and complete cessation of all Israeli settlement activities in all of the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and in the occupied Syrian Golan.”
Though 88 votes were in favour of the amendment, it could not garner the winning two-thirds majority, a government source told news agency PTI. “In the absence of all elements of our approach not being covered in the final text of the resolution, we abstained in the vote on its adoption,” the source added.
This development comes after India had abstained from voting on a UN resolution calling for an “immediate, durable and sustained humanitarian truce” between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
The 193-member UN General Assembly met in a resumed 10th Emergency Special Session in October and voted on the draft resolution submitted by Jordan and co-sponsored by over 40 nations including Bangladesh, Maldives, Pakistan, Russia and South Africa.
In its Explanation of Vote after the UNGA resolution last month, India’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Yojna Patel had said “In a world where differences and disputes should be resolved by dialogue, this august body should be deeply concerned at recourse to violence. That too, when it happens on a scale and intensity that is an affront to basic human values.”
Describing the terror attacks in Israel on October 7 as shocking, Patel said they deserve condemnation.
“Terrorism is a malignancy and knows no borders, nationality or race. The world should not buy into any justification of terror acts. Let us keep aside differences, unite and adopt a zero-tolerance approach to terrorism,” she had said.
(With inputs from PTI)
