Arab News | UN committee backs Palestinian sovereignty over natural resources in occupied territories

DUBAI: A UN General Assembly committee adopted a resolution on Wednesday affirming the permanent sovereignty of Palestinians and the Arab population in the occupied Syrian Golan over their natural resources, Palestinian news agency WAFA reported.

The resolution, submitted by the Group of 77 and China, passed the Second Committee, the assembly’s economic and financial committee, with 151 votes in favor, including all European Union member states and Canada. The seven countries which voted against were the US, Israel, Colombia, Paraguay, Palau, Nauru and Micronesia, and 11 abstained.

The resolution is adopted every year. Last year it passed the committee with 152 votes in favor, eight against and 12 abstentions. It will now go to the full 193-member General Assembly for formal adoption, expected in December.

General Assembly resolutions are not legally binding and the vote will have little direct effect on the ground. But it underlines how few countries side with Israel and the US on the issue and adds to the legal basis that states and campaigners use to challenge Israel’s occupation, including its settlements.

The resolution affirms the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people to their natural resources and demands that Israel stop exploiting them. It also affirms the Palestinians’ right to seek restitution for that exploitation and says Israel’s construction of settlements and the separation wall, along with other actions, has harmed the Palestinian environment.

It states that the Fourth Geneva Convention on the protection of civilians in wartime and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights apply to the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem.

The text refers to the International Court of Justice’s advisory opinion of July 19, 2024, on the legal consequences of Israel’s policies and practices in the occupied territory, including the illegality of Israel’s continued presence there. It also recalls the court’s 2004 advisory opinion on the wall in the occupied West Bank.

The resolution reaffirms UN Security Council Resolution 2334, which called on all states to distinguish between the territory of Israel and the territories it has occupied since 1967.

Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian permanent observer to the UN, said the overwhelming vote once again showed international support for the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, including their sovereign right over their natural resources, WAFA reported. He thanked the countries that voted in favor.