Morocco votes against Israeli interests in UN General Assembly, urging ICJ to look into ‘occupation’

In the UN General Assembly vote on December 30, 87 nations, including Morocco, voted to petition the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to hear cases involving Israel’s occupation of Palestinian areas.

Arab countries, including those that have mended their relations with Israel, such as Morocco, uniformly voted in favor, with 26 countries voting against and 53 abstaining.

While Western powers were split, China and Russia also voted yes.

Belgium, Portugal, and Ireland voted in support of the motion, while the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Italy abstained. Both France and Switzerland chose not to vote.

In the statement, it is urged that the The Hague-based UN court decide “the legal ramifications of Israel’s continuous violation of the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination.”

The ICJ is urged to “render urgently an advisory opinion” on Israel’s “prolonged occupation, settlement, and annexation of Palestinian territory” in the resolution titled “Israeli practices and settlement activities affecting the rights of the Palestinian people and other Arabs of the occupied territories.”

The statement highlights the actions taken by the Israeli administration “to change the demographic mix, character, and status of Jerusalem’s holy city.”

Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, described the resolution as a “moral stain” on the “politicized and morally bankrupt United Nations” before the voting.

He said that “no international institution can determine whether the Jewish people are occupants in their own territory.”

The newly elected Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu criticized the General Assembly’s decision on Saturday, stating that “no U.N. resolution can distort that historical truth” and that “the Jewish people are not occupiers in their own land nor are they occupiers in our eternal capital Jerusalem.”

In a video address, Netanyahu declared that Israel was not constrained by the international organization’s “despicable judgment.”

The annexation of West Bank territories on which illegal Israeli settlements have been constructed is something that Netanyahu has prioritized for his cabinet, which is made up of numerous political groups.