General Assembly: 54th plenary meeting, 80th session

The General Assembly today adopted two resolutions, one concerning the occupied Syrian Golan and the other the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

“For 78 years, the Palestinian people have been denied their inalienable rights — in particular, their right to self-determination,” said Annalena Baerbock (Germany), President of the General Assembly at its eightieth session. All that has happened over the last two years has “underlined what we have known since decades”, she said — that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict cannot be resolved through occupation or annexation, and that the two will only live in lasting peace when they live side-by-side in two sovereign and independent States. “So we know what we have to do,” she urged, underscoring that self-determination is “not a privilege to be earned, but a right to be upheld”.

Following a day-long debate, the Assembly adopted the resolution on this issue — titled “Peaceful settlement of the question of Palestine” (document A/80/L.16) — by a recorded vote of 151 in favour to 11 against, with 11 abstentions. Through it, the Assembly stressed the need for urgent, collective efforts to launch credible negotiations on all final status issues in the Middle East peace process and called for the timely convening of an international conference in Moscow — as envisioned by Security Council resolution 1850 (2008) — to advance a just, lasting and comprehensive peace settlement.

Further, the resolution saw the Assembly demand that Israel comply strictly with its obligations under international law, including by ending its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and ceasing all new settlement activities. It also rejected any attempt at demographic or territorial change in Gaza and stressed the importance of unifying the Strip with the West Bank under the Palestinian Authority. Additionally, the Assembly called for Israel’s withdrawal from the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967 and for the realization of the Palestinian people’s inalienable rights — primarily the right to self-determination.

Agenda Item 35: Question of Palestine: Report A/80/35; Note by the Secretary-General A/80/356

Statements:

• Norway
• Brunei Darussalam
• Algeria
• Morocco
• Saudi Arabia
• Colombia
• Oman
• South Africa
• Bahrain
• Pan African Intergovernmental Agency for Water and Sanitation for Africa

Agenda Item 34: The situation in the Middle East: Report of the Secretary-General A/80/327

Statements:

• Egypt (to introduce draft resolution A/80/L.12)
• Syrian Arab Republic
• Türkiye
• Maldives

Agenda Item 35: Question of Palestine: Draft resolution A/80/L.16

Explanations of vote/Position before:

• Israel
• Iran (Islamic Republic of)
• United States
• Explanations of vote/Position after:
• United Kingdom
• Iraq
• Ukraine
• Cuba
• Tunisia

Agenda Item 34: The situation in the Middle East: Draft resolution A/80/L.12

Explanations of vote/Position after:

• United Kingdom
• Canada
• Netherlands (Kingdom of the)