Australia abstains as UN General Assembly votes to demand Israel end Palestinian occupation

The United Nations General Assembly has overwhelmingly voted in favour of a Palestinian resolution demanding Israel end its “unlawful presence” in Gaza and the occupied West Bank within a year.

The vote in the 193-member world body was 124-14, with Australia one of 43 members states to abstain. The United States voted against it.

Australia’s ambassador to the UN, James Larsen, said it had several concerns with the resolution, and was “deeply disappointed” they were not addressed before the vote. He said Australia supported many of the resolution’s principles.

The resolution was adopted as troubled efforts to broker a ceasefire deal in Gaza press ahead. 

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is holding meetings with mediators in Egypt even as attacks elsewhere in the region — including a fresh wave of explosions across Lebanon — raise fears of escalating conflict in the Middle East.

Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian UN ambassador, called the vote a turning point “in our struggle for freedom and justice”.

But Israel’s UN ambassador, Danny Danon, said the vote showed the general assembly “continues to dance to the music of the Palestinian Authority, which backs the Hamas murderers”.

Mr Larsen said Australia had wanted to vote for a resolution that “directly reflected” a recent advisory ruling from the World Court, which said Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories was unlawful. 

Australia also wanted a resolution that “clearly offered the Palestinian people a path to self-determination and gave the world a path to a two-state solution”, the Australian ambassador said.

He told the general assembly that Australia was already doing a lot of what the resolution called for. It had not supplied weapons to Israel in at least five years, was sanctioning extremist Israeli settlers, and had doubled funding to the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency, UNRWA, he said.

The resolution is the first put forward by the Palestinian Authority since it gained new rights and privileges this month, including a seat among UN members in the assembly hall and the right to propose draft resolutions.

ABC/wires