The United Nations General Assembly voted 124-14 on Wednesday to strip Israel of the right to self-defense in the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem.
The test of the resolution was based on the International Court of Justice’s advisory opinion in July that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory was illegal.
The resolution also calls on member states not to sell arms or military equipment to Israel that would be used in Gaza, the West Bank, and east Jerusalem.
Among the 43 countries that abstained were Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom. Some 12 of the 27 European Union countries abstained, including Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Lithuania, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Sweden.
That is a very misleading headline. Carpet bombing over 30.000 civilians to death is not self defense, not even close to it.
Germany abstaining is actually a big deal.
The defense of Israel is one of our “Reason of State” and not voting in favour of Israel is a serious signal that politicians are fed up with Netanyahus bullshit.
Israel is illegally occupying Palestine. The violence they commit is the furthest possible thing from self defense.
Why list a select 15 abstainers in the summary rather than the 14 voting against? Besides the obvious ones (Israel, US, Czechia), there’s Hungary, Argentina, Paraguay, Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Palau, Nauru, Malawi, Tuvalu, Tonga and Micronesia.
Why do all the Polynesian countries support Israel so strongly?
Cheap votes to buy or bully. Simply too poor to afford a conscience.
They nearly always follow USA in voting, so Israel gets supported indirectly.
Besides the obvious Genocide Joe administration countries like Palau, Tuvalu, and Micronesia do not evoke much significance.
Rather I found listing the more mainstream countries still silently supporting israel and refusing to condemn their obvious violation of international law more interesting.
On closer consideration Hungary might be of relevance, since they are allegedly responsible for the recent israeli supply chain terror attack on Lebanon.
So we’re back to genociding Israel again? I feel like no one has a plan that isn’t at least a little genocide.
My slopes aren’t as slippery, where did you buy yours? I get why you said that, given the tumultuous nature surrounding Israel since it’s founding in the 1940’s, but the Arab nations said they would cease aggression when Israel did. Perhaps Israel having it’s sticks taken away is a step towards a peaceful Middle-East?
that argument is actually crazy to me anyway, since it wasnt arab nations that genocided Jewish ppl. It was a western country.
Why is Czechia obvious?
It is possible none of us will live to see Czechia vote against the interest of Israel as all parties support it and there is pretty much no organized pro-Palestine movement. Israel says we’re their top partners in the eastern hemisphere, which means a lot because most countries are in the eastern hemisphere, including itself. At least, aid toward them is not nearly as popular among politicians and citizens as for Ukraine (we have a sizable, well-behaved Ukrainian minority already and took the most refugees per capita at the height of the crisis).
As for why pretty much every politician is either oblivious or bootlicking Israel: see my comment under a post about the shredder escapade 4 months ago
Thank you for the explanation! Such a shame that anti-Zionism is so often conflated with antisemitism
What’s funny is that lots of people outside Prague are racist and most of them make no effort to hide it. Our nation very much prides itself in dark humor and very few topics are taboo, we even have racial and Auschwitz jokes. However, most people are oblivious to what’s happening in the area so even if you made a really good point for Palestine and composed it into a joke, it’s not going to resonate with any audience. Maybe university students (though a great deal of them are pro-Israel so you might get cringey faces and boos).
What a shitty title and crappy biased article. That’s not what the resolution was about.
Here’s the Washington Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/09/19/un-resolution-israel-palestinian-territory-countries-vote/
U.N. General Assembly demands Israel end occupation of Palestinian territory The nonbinding resolution says Israel must end its “unlawful presence” within a year, pull out military forces, halt settlement expansion and evacuate settlers.
Ashamed that my country abstained here
I’m not.
It’s obvious why OP is ashamed. But why aren’t you? Proud of your nation’s quiet support of a genocide?
The headline is genocide apologia and should be banned.
The entire article is utter apologetic trash, doing its absolute best to show how unpopular this decision is (despite being hugely popular) and focusing on “Hamas terrorism concerns” without any consideration at all given to Palestinians.
They never had that right to begin with. A foreign military force has no right to self defense from the occupied people.
Looks like israel doesn’t have the right to defend itself.
Given that its ‘defence’ is indiscriminately bombing civilian populations and blowing the limbs off children, they shouldn’t be allowed to. Israel shouldn’t have committed war crimes similar to the Nazis.
Israel has been murdering Palestinians for decades now. It’s a country founded on mass murder and genocide.
There’s a difference between defending oneself and engaging in collective punishment and genocide. I am Jewish and the descendent of holocaust survivors. Not in my name.
I mean yes, but this ruling is fhat they can’t do either. Since these regions are illegally occupied, their inhabitants have the right to resist said occupation and, therefore Israel doesn’t have the right to defend itself in the same way it would against an independent country.
Is this just symbolic? Does it levy any penalties for not complying?
The resolution has declaratory power only but provides international backing to those countries that want to take additional steps against Israel.
And nobody will obey that decision.
ICJ has made some rulings about Artsakh too. Should have been not so hard to sanction the beheading savages out of occupying a small country and expelling its residents. By the way, in the UN charter a “country” does not only refer to UN members, that distinction is intentionally made clear in a few places.
UN is less useful than Holy Roman Empire.
It’s not a decision to obey. It’s just a boring skit they put on once in a while. I feel like the kids’ Model UN has more actual impact on society than the UN and its toothless performative bullshit
Legislative bodies get their “teeth” by the state monopoly on violence. The UN having teeth would have to mean UN forces, and it’d even have to mean those forces being among the strongest in the world.
It’s a diplomatic tool, not anything else. It encourages communication and collaboration and discourages conflict.
It stopped being about self-defense, if anyone ever bothered trailing what Israel had been doing.
But, go watch the prime minister declare everyone anti-semantic anyways over this.
Honestly it would be an open and shut case here in the US.
My neighbor throws grenades into my window, me running into their house with my friends and shooting everyone there who looks like they might have had a grenade is not self-defense…
Israel and Kyle Rittenhouse can agree on one thing, it’s totally cool to kill people and then pretend you were defending yourself
Please yankee, don’t make everything happening in the world about you
We need to expel Israel from the UN. These religious fanatics have no place in the civilized world.
Good time to expel Iran as well
Israeli fanatics have killed more people in a year than Iran has in decades. Israel is a terrorist entity.
“Rights” can only be taken away by force, if there is no method to ensure compliance, this is yet another meaningless resolution.
The UN is a diplomatic organization. It is a forum to discuss things and literally has no actual means to enforce anything. Its goal is not enforcement, it’s to discuss.
Exactly. Every time the UN does something, people say “they can’t enforce it”.
Well, that’s the whole point of the UN. To resolve things without using force.
It’s a good design, designed by people who learned from the horrors of WW2.
It’s sad to see how many people nowadays forget those lessons and are itching for global war.
I, personally, am itching for progress. In my lifetime. What history has proven is that progress is never achieved without bloodshed.
Though there is one very easy step the US at least can take that isn’t bloodshed: STOP SELLING WEAPONS TO ISRAEL.
Why does it really matter that issues can be “discussed” if the issue being discussed is as atrocious as what Israel is doing to Palestine.
Israel and the US know that what they’re doing is wrong. Them and their crony countries aren’t going to change course because of this.
It doesn’t exactly prevent WW2 if they tell Hitler to stop and he doesn’t listen…unless of course they choose to let him continue his goals unimpeded rather than go to war, citing their documented disagreement as sufficient counter action…
Because there is value in a large group speaking with a unified voice to say “this is wrong, and you need to know that the rest of us think it’s wrong. Your behavior will affect the relationship you have with us all going forward”. Direct intervention isn’t the only form of consequence.
Is it the best solution to the problem? No. Is it still worth doing? Yes.
And prevent such global wars like WWII. Funnily enough, the state of Israel was funded exactly by an UN resolution, and now Israel is trying to discredit the same institution that’s responsible for the existence of their state.
What is the point of voting, especially veto, if it’s all just voicing complaints?
If you hear 5 people yell at 5 people then they take a vote and the vote comes out 101 to 5 and the rest staying silent (hypothetical), it’s different than 53-53. It helps you understand what others believe/support while not having to listen to all of them talk.
