General Assembly Adopts More Anti-Israel Resolutions

1 December 2000 -- The United Nations General Assembly today concluded its consideration of the situation in the Middle East and the question of Palestine after voting to adopt a total of six resolutions on those agenda items.

• By the terms of a resolution on Jerusalem, adopted with 145 Member States voting in favour, 1 against (Israel) and 5 abstentions (Angola, Federated States of Micronesia, Marshall Islands, Nauru, United States), the Assembly determined that the decision of Israel to impose its laws, jurisdiction and administration on the Holy City of Jerusalem was illegal and, therefore, null and void. The Assembly also deplored the transfer by some States of their diplomatic missions to Jerusalem in violation of Security Council resolution 478 (1980).
  
  
• With 96 voting in favour, 2 against (Israel, US), and 55 abstaining, the Assembly adopted a resolution on the Syrian Golan. By the terms of this text, the Assembly declared that Israel had failed so far to comply with Security Council resolution 497 (1981) and that the Israeli 1981 decision to impose its laws, jurisdiction and administration on the occupied Syrian Golan was null and void, and had no validity whatsoever. The Assembly called upon Israel to resume the talks on the Syrian and Lebanese tracks and to respect the commitments and undertakings reached during previous talks. It also demanded that Israel withdraw from all the occupied Syrian Golan to the line of 4 June 1967.
  
  
• On the question of Palestine, the Assembly adopted a resolution on the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, in a recorded vote of 106 in favour, 2 against (Israel, US), and 48 abstentions. The Assembly authorized the Committee to continue to exert all efforts to promote the exercise of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people and to give special emphasis to the need to mobilize support and assistance for them.
  
  
• By a text on the Division for Palestinian Rights of the UN Secretariat, the Assembly requested Secretary-General Kofi Annan to continue to provide the Division with the necessary resources. The vote was 107 in favour, 2 against (Israel, US), with 48 abstentions. In its action on the Special Information Programme on Palestine of the UN Department of Public Information, the Assembly requested the Department to continue its special information programme for the biennium 2000-2001 and to promote the Bethlehem 2000 Project. The resolution was adopted by a recorded vote of 151 in favour, 2 against (Israel, US) and 2 abstentions (Federated States of Micronesia, Marshall Islands).
  
  
• Adopting its resolution on the peaceful settlement of the question of Palestine by a recorded vote of 149 in favour, 2 against (Israel, US), and 3 abstentions (Federated States of Micronesia, Marshall Islands, Nauru), the Assembly expressed its full support for the ongoing peace process and expressed the hope that the process would lead to the establishment of a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the Middle East. It stressed the need for commitment to the principle of land for peace and the implementation of Security Council resolutions 242 (1967) and 338 (1973), and the need for the immediate and scrupulous implementation of the agreements reached between the parties, including the redeployment of Israeli forces from the West Bank.

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