General Assembly Adopts Landmark Resolutions, Holds Several Emergency Special Meetings, as Delegates Focus on Crises in Gaza, Sudan during First Trimester of Annual Session

26 December 2024

‘Our Future Is in Our Hands,’ Assembly President Says Upon Historic Pact’s Adoption, Secretary-General Urges Using Resources for Opportunity, Hope, Not Death, Destruction

During the first three months of its seventy-ninth session, the General Assembly plenary adopted landmark resolutions, including one demanding Israel end its presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory within 12 months and another outlining a blueprint for future generations, while also holding sessions deploring the Security Council’s failure to address the crises in Gaza and Sudan.

At the start of its annual session, the Assembly resumed its tenth Emergency Special Session on illegal Israeli actions in Occupied Jerusalem and the rest of the Occupied Palestinian Territory, which it then held again closer to the end of the year.  During that 18 September meeting, the 193-member body adopted in a vote of 124 in favour, to 14 against, with 43 abstentions, the International Court of Justice’s advisory opinion on the legal consequences arising from Israel’s policies and practices in the Territory, including East Jerusalem, and from the illegality of Israel’s continued presence there (document A/ES-10/L.31/Rev.1).

By its terms, the Assembly demanded Israel cease all settlement activity, evacuate settlers from the Occupied Territory, return land seized since 1967 and allow displaced Palestinians to return to their homes.

“Delayed justice is denied justice,” said the Permanent Observer for the State of Palestine.  Unchecked, undeterred Israeli impunity will only mean more Palestinians are killed, maimed and detained.

Rejecting the text, Israel’s representative said the first thing the Assembly should have done is adopt a unanimous, unequivocal condemnation of the terror that occurred on 7 October 2023.  “Instead, we gather here to watch the Palestinians’ UN circus; a circus where evil is righteous, war is peace, murder is justified and terror is applauded,” he said.

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Overwhelming Demand for Gaza Ceasefire and Realization of Two-State Solution 

On 3 December, the Assembly emphasized that a two-State solution remains the “only path to lasting peace” in the Middle East, as speakers overwhelmingly called for a Gaza ceasefire and pressed Israel to permit food and aid deliveries into the enclave ahead of the cold winter months.  Assembly President Yang said that the continued denial of Palestinian statehood “has only perpetuated cycles of violence and deepened despair”.  “Bury the hatchet for once and for all,” he stressed.

At that meeting, the Assembly adopted a resolution titled “Peaceful settlement of the question of Palestine” (document A/79/L.23), stressing the need to urgently commit to a Middle East peace process.

“Every single day — from sunrise to sunset, from sunset to sunrise — has been a journey of struggle and survival, of pain and agony, of loss and death,” said the Permanent Observer for the State of Palestine.

Israel’s delegate said that, instead of condemning Hamas’ murder, rape and torture of 1,200 people, the Assembly fixates on resolutions sponsored by Cuba, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Venezuela and the Syrian regime.  “The UN’s entrenched anti-Israeli bias has been laid bare for all to see,” she added.

On 4 December, the Assembly resumed its tenth Emergency Special Session on illegal Israeli actions in Occupied Jerusalem and the rest of the Occupied Palestinian Territory.  Speaking for the Group of Friends in Defense of the Charter of the United Nations, Venezuela’s delegate said the United States veto in the Security Council on 20 November of a text demanding an immediate, unconditional ceasefire in Gaza demonstrates its complicity with Israel’s actions in Gaza, “severely undermining peace and security in the Middle East”.

A week later, the Assembly made those demands in its own text (document A/ES-10/L.33),also demanding the immediate release of all hostages and that Israel allow the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) to proceed with its aid operations without restriction in Gaza and the West Bank, stressing that the Agency plays an indispensable role in alleviating the plight of over 6 million Palestine refugees.

The representative of the United States said that the draft “risks sending a dangerous message” to Hamas that there is no need to negotiate or release the hostages.  He warned the Assembly not to “vindicate Hamas’ cynical strategy of stalling and obstruction”, and to instead adopt a resolution to increase pressure on Hamas to accept a deal without conditions or further delays rather than relieving it of same.  “Israel’s fight is with Hamas, not UNRWA,” he added.