NEW YORK, November 13, 2009 (WAFA)- United Nations General Assembly Second Committee (Economic and Financial) approved two draft resolutions Thursday , including a text that would have the General Assembly demand that Israel stop exploiting, damaging, depleting or endangering the natural resources of the Occupied Palestinian Territory and the occupied Syrian Golan.
By other terms of that text -– approved, as orally corrected, by a recorded vote of 152 in favour to 9 against (Australia, Canada, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Israel, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Palau, United States), with 3 abstentions (Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, Panama) -– the Assembly would call upon Israel to comply strictly with its obligations under international law, including international humanitarian law, with respect to altering the character and status of the Occupied Palestinian Territory. (See Annex for details of voting.)
The Assembly would, by further terms, call on Israel to stop all actions that harmed the environment, including the dumping of waste materials in the occupied Palestinian and Syrian territories, and to stop destroying vital infrastructure, including water pipelines and sewage networks. It would also stress that the wall being constructed by Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including in and around East Jerusalem, violated international law and seriously deprived the Palestinian people of their natural resources. The Assembly would call on Israel to comply with the 9 July 2004 advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice concerning the wall.
In a general statement following the action, the Permanent Observer for Palestine said the text sent a clear message that the international community stood with the Palestinians, whose rights and resources had been stolen, and showed overwhelming support for international law and for parity of standards for everyone. The issue was critically important to the Palestinians, especially as they continued to suffer under the occupation that had brought them poverty and misery. The draft resolution provided the legal and moral protective framework to safeguard the rights of the Palestinian people to their own resources, and claims that it was irrelevant were an affront to the international community.
