2014: year of solidarity with Palestinians

The year 2014 has been proclaimed the International Year of Solidarity with the Palestinian People by the UN General Assembly.

 In a vote, 26 November, the text was adopted by 110 votes in favour to 7 against (Australia, Canada, Micronesia, Israel, Marshall Islands, Palau and the United States), with 56 abstentions. The resolution requested the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People to organize activities around that observance, in cooperation with Governments, the United Nations system, intergovernmental organisations and civil society.
The General Assembly voted on a number of resolutions on related issues such as the convening of an international conference in Moscow, as well as a resolution stating that all legal and administrative measures taken by Israel to change the legal status of East Jerusalem were null and void. It also called for Israel to withdraw from the Golan heights to 1967 borders.

The representative of Iran, said in the debate that Israel had committed heinous crimes against Palestinians, including construction of illegal settlements and an apartheid wall, and the Gaza blockade. The Israeli regime, as a source of terrorism, continued to perpetrate its crimes with a sense of impunity.

Speaking after the votes, the representative of the United States said that his country remained deeply troubled by the repetitive and disproportionate number of one-sided Assembly resolutions condemning Israel. Only four other resolutions had been critical of other Member States. All parties to the tragic conflict had a responsibility for ending it, and the United States was disappointed that the Assembly continued to single out Israel.

Photo: The General Assembly´s debate on the Middle East 26 November. UN//Paulo Filgueiras