UN rings in 'The Year Of Palestine' by passing six resolutions condemning Israel

Friday marks one-year anniversary of the vote to upgrade the Palestinian Mission to the UN’s status to “non-member observer state.”

By MAYA SHWAYDER
UN General Assembly votes on admitting Palestine 370 (photo credit: REUTERS)
UN General Assembly votes on admitting Palestine 370
(photo credit: REUTERS)
NEW YORK – The UN General Assembly passed six more resolutions concerning Israel on Monday, including one that called for Israel to return the Golan Heights to Syria.
Of the six resolutions one said Israel should cease imposing its jurisdiction on Jerusalem and another one, labeled 68/L.12, declared 2014 the “International Year of Solidarity with the Palestinian People.”
This resolution calls on the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People to “organize activities to be held during the year.”
Of the other three resolutions, one praised the Secretariat’s Division of Palestinian Rights for its role in “raising international awareness of the question of Palestine;” the second called for a peaceful settlement to the conflict and said that Israel, as “the Occupying Power,” must “comply strictly with its obligations under international law,” and the third advocated for the “dissemination of information on all the activities of the United Nations system relating to the question of Palestine and the peace process.”
UN Watch president Hillel Neuer said in a statement that these resolutions and actions by the UN will do nothing to help either the Palestinians or the Israelis on the ground.
“We’re concerned about a new year that will bring escalated politicization of influential UN agencies worldwide, doing nothing to help Palestinians or Israelis on the ground, while inflicting yet further damage to the world body’s effectiveness and credibility,” Neuer said.
“The UN’s drumbeat of excessive, disproportionate and one-sided condemnations of Israel causes polarization, threatens to push the parties further apart and is counterproductive to the already fragile peace process.”
These events follow Monday night’s performance by Arab Idol winner Mohammed Assaf and Palestinian musician Nai Barghouti at the UN, in celebration of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, as well as the “hot mic” incident in Geneva on November 12, in which an interpreter was caught expressing confusion as to why the UN was passing so many resolutions against Israel alone when there is, as the interpreter said, “other really bad [expletive] happening, but no one says anything about the other stuff.”
Friday, November 29, marks the one-year anniversary of the vote to upgrade the Palestinian Mission to the UN’s status to “non-member observer state.”