UNITED NATIONS – Some 40 nations on Monday known as on Israel to carry sanctions it imposed on the Palestinian Authority earlier this month over its push to get the UN’s high courtroom to difficulty an advisory opinion on the Israeli occupation.
On December 30, the UN General Assembly handed a decision requesting an opinion from the International Court of Justice on the problem of the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories.
In retaliation, Israel introduced a sequence of sanctions, together with monetary ones, on January 6 towards the Palestinian Authority to make it “pay the price” for pushing for the decision.
In a press release to journalists Monday, some 40 United Nations member states, reaffirming their “unwavering support” for the ICJ and worldwide legislation, expressed “deep concern regarding the Israeli government’s decision to impose punitive measures against the Palestinian people, leadership and civil society following the request by the General Assembly” to the courtroom.
“Regardless of each country’s position on the resolution, we reject punitive measures in response to a request for an advisory opinion by the International Court of Justice, and more broadly in response to a General Assembly resolution, and call for their immediate reversal,” the members mentioned.
The assertion is signed by nations that voted for this decision (Algeria, Argentina, Belgium, Ireland, Pakistan and South Africa, amongst others) but in addition by some that abstained — Japan, France and South Korea — and others that voted towards, like Germany and Estonia.
“This is significant as it shows that regardless of how countries have voted, they are united in rejecting these punitive measures,” the Palestinian ambassador to the UN, Riyad Mansour, mentioned in a press release.
Asked in regards to the members’ assertion, a spokeswoman for the UN secretary-general reiterated Antonio Guterres’s “deep concern” about “recent Israeli measures against the Palestinian Authority,” stressing that “there should be no retaliation” in reference to the ICJ.
A UN Security Council assembly on the Palestinian difficulty is scheduled for Wednesday.
A earlier assembly this month, after the go to of an Israeli minister to the Al-Aqsa Mosque, recognized in Judaism because the Temple Mount, led to a tense verbal change between Israeli and Palestinian diplomats. —Agence France-Presse
