The UN General Assembly's Second Committee pushed back at the concept of de-facto Israeli annexation on Wednesday night, approving a draft resolution by 156-6 that called on nations to ensure that they do not treat the West Bank settlements and east Jerusalem (Al-Quds) as a part of sovereign Israel.
The six countries that opposed the resolution on Wednesday were Canada, Israel, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru and the United States.
The resolution also condemned Israeli razing of illegal Palestinian structures.
The text stated that the UNGA affirmed the “inalienable rights of the Palestinian people and of the population of the occupied Syrian Golan over their natural resources, including land, water and energy resources.”
It demanded “that Israel, the occupying Power, cease the exploitation, damage, cause of loss or depletion and endangerment of the natural resources in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including east Jerusalem, and in the occupied Syrian Golan.”
The resolution also called “upon Israel not to impede Palestinian development and export of discovered oil and natural gas reserves.”
The resolution affirmed the rights of the Palestinians to be compensated for Israeli use of their natural resources.
The resolution against the exploitation of Palestinian natural resources is one of almost 20 texts that the UNGA approvals annually against Israel. No other country has that many resolutions leveled against it.
The Palestinian Authority representative thanked those countries that supported the resolution, which it said was an affirmation of the rights of Palestinians to that territory over the pre-1967 lines. Urgent international action is needed to bring Israel into compliance with international law, the representative said.
Countries which abstained from the resolution included Australia, Brazil, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Cote D’ivoire, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Kiribati, Madagascar, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Togo, Tonga and Tuvalu.
The entire European Union block of 27 countries as wells the United Kingdom voted for the text.
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