U.N. Gangs Up on Israel, Approves Several Pro-Palestinian Resolutions

The United Nations' General Assembly on Tuesday approved a handful of resolutions that said Israel's aggression against Palestinians is making peace impossible, called on Israel to retreat to its pre-1967 borders, and asked members to find ways to promote a Palestinian state.

The lopsided votes came after U.S. Permanent Representative to the U.N. Samantha Power warned — in vain — that she is troubled by the several "one-sided" resolutions condemning Israel that are introduced each year. Power said passage of these resolutions "damages the prospects for peace" by undermining the international support needed to achieve that peace.

U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Samantha Power spoke out Tuesday against several pro-Palestinian resolutions, which the U.N. approved anyway.
Credit: AFP/Getty Images

"These unbalanced, one-sided resolutions set back our collective efforts to advance a peaceful resolution to the conflict in the Middle East, and they damage the institutional credibility of the United Nations," she said.

The votes were surrounded by debate in which several countries blamed Israel for the worsening prospects for peace. The United Arab Emirates said Israel must end all settlement activity and release Palestinian prisoners, among other things, in order to realize peace.

Representatives from Malaysia, Cuba, Qatar, Libya and many others lodged similar complaints against Israel.

Israel replied by saying "the thousands of radical Islamists were the real problem in the Middle East," the U.N. said. Israel said regimes in Iran and Syria were causing violence in the region.

In the past, anti-Israel resolutions have intensified U.S.-based criticisms of the United Nations, particularly because the U.S. funds more than one-fifth of U.N. activities.

Nonetheless, the U.N. easily approved several resolutions, including one that said all efforts by Israel to impose its laws on the Holy City of Jerusalem were "illegal and therefore null and void," the U.N. said. It called on Israel to "immediately cease all such illegal measures," and expressed "grave concern" about new Israeli settlements.

That resolution was easily approved in a 144-6 vote — opposing it were Canada, Israel, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Palau and the United States.

Power stressed in her remarks that the United States also rejects Israel's expanded settlements. But she said the U.S. nonetheless opposed the language, and said the U.N. should not be wasting time "reinforcing the perception of systematic U.N. bias against Israel."

A second resolution was passed in a 99-6 vote that said Israel's effort to impose its laws on the occupied Syrian Golan was "null and void."

Another resolution "stressed the need for Israel, the occupying Power, to withdraw from the Occupied Palestinian Territory, reiterated its demand for the complete cessation of all Israeli settlement activity and demanded that Israel comply with its obligations under international law."

It also called on UN members to "expedite economic, humanitarian and technical aid to the Palestinian people and Government in order to alleviate the serious humanitarian situation there and to rehabilitate the Palestinian economy and infrastructure." That language was approved 148-6.

Others were approved asking the U.N. to promote the "inalienable rights of the Palestinian people," and to address the "question of Palestine" and "Palestinian capacity-building."