The United Nations General Assembly recently passed two significant resolutions related to the ongoing conflict in Gaza. The first resolution calls for an immediate, unconditional, and permanent ceasefire in Gaza, which passed with 158 votes in favor, 9 against, and 13 abstentions. The second resolution expresses support for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA). It condemns a new Israeli law that would ban the agency’s operations in Israel. This resolution was adopted with 159 votes in favor, 9 against, and 11 abstentions. The resolutions emphasize the urgent need for humanitarian aid, the protection of UNRWA’s mandate, and the cessation of hostilities. They highlight the severe humanitarian situation in Gaza. While the resolutions reflect the majority of global sentiment, Israel and the United States voted against them, expressing concerns about the implications for Hamas and the broader situation in Gaza. Despite the overwhelming support for the ceasefire in the General Assembly, such resolutions are non-binding, unlike those passed by the UN Security Council, which carry legal weight. Both votes culminated two days of speeches at the UN where speaker after speaker called for an end to Israel’s 14-month war on the Palestinian territory that has killed at least 44,805 people mostly Palestinian women and children and wounded 106,257. Gaza does not exist anymore, Slovenia’s UN Ambassador Samuel Zbogar told the General Assembly meeting. Civilians are facing hunger, despair, and death, he said. There is no reason for this war to continue. We need a ceasefire now. Algeria’s deputy UN ambassador Nacim Gaouaoui addressed the world’s inability to stop the war in Gaza: The price of silence and failure in the face of the Palestinian tragedy is a very heavy price, and it will be heavier tomorrow. Israel and its staunchest ally, the US, were in a tiny minority of countries and their representatives speaking and voting against the resolutions at the UN. US Deputy UN Ambassador Robert Wood reiterated Washington’s opposition to the ceasefire resolution in advance of the vote and criticized the Palestinians for again failing to mention Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, which killed an estimated 1,139 people and saw more than 200 Israelis taken captive in Gaza. At a time when Hamas is feeling isolated due to the ceasefire in Lebanon, the draft resolution on a ceasefire in Gaza risks sending a dangerous message to Hamas that there’s no need to negotiate or release the hostages,” he said. In advance of the UN vote, Israel’s UN Ambassador Danny Danon accused supporters of the resolutions of complicity with Hamas. By demanding a ceasefire today without addressing the hostages, this assembly will once again side with those who weaponized human suffering, Danon said. While UN Security Council resolutions are legally binding, General Assembly resolutions are not. The Palestinians and their supporters went to the General Assembly after the US vetoed a Security Council resolution on November 20 demanding an immediate Gaza ceasefire. The language of the ceasefire resolution adopted by the assembly is the same as the text of the vetoed Security Council resolution, and demands an immediate, unconditional, and permanent ceasefire, while also reiterating a demand for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages. Palestinian UN Ambassador Riyad Mansour said last week, during the first day of debate in the assembly’s special session on the issue, that Gaza is the bleeding heart of Palestine. The images of children burning in tents, with no food in their bellies and no hopes and no horizon for the future, and after having endured pain and loss for more than a year, should haunt the conscience of the world and prompt action to end this nightmare.
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