WEST BANK (Dispatches) – The United Nations has overwhelmingly adopted a resolution in condemnation of illegal Zionist settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories, including East Al-Quds, and Syria’s Golan Heights, and demanded cessation of their construction.
On Tuesday, the United Nations General Assembly Fourth Committee endorsed the resolution by 143-7 votes, with 16 abstentions.
The resolution condemned the occupying regime over construction of settlements in and around East Al-Quds, including the contentious E1 development plan that critics say would block the contested territory off entirely from the West Bank.
The UN resolution also slammed the continued destruction of Palestinian homes, expulsion of Palestinian families from East Al-Quds, and deprivation of Palestinians of the right to reside there.
The document went on to denounce the occupying regime’s settlement expansion activities in the strategic Jordan Valley, which would further divide occupied Palestinian territories and undercut their geographic proximity.
It slammed demolition of Palestinian buildings in Wadi al-Hummus neighborhood south of East Al-Quds as violation of the international law.
The resolution comes as a Palestinian official has warned that 20,000 homes belonging to Palestinian families in the occupied Al-Quds are at the risk of demolition by Zionist regime authorities under the pretext that the structures do not have a construction permit.
Ahmad Rwaidy, an advisor on Al-Quds affairs in Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ office, said in a statement that while Palestinian residents of the contested city can only build on 12% of the territory, the figure for Zionist settlers stands at 42%, Lebanon’s al-Ahed news website reported.
He warned that a grave danger threatened residents of the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood near the Old City of Al-Quds if a compromise deal, which would see them accept the temporary ownership of their homes by a Zionist settler organization, had been reached with them.
In addition, the UN resolution condemned Zionist settlers over their acts of violence against ordinary Palestinians, especially children, and their destruction of Palestinian properties, historical and religious sites, and farming lands.
The resolution underscored that Zionist settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories and Syria’s occupied Syrian Golan Heights are “illegal,” and constitute an obstacle to a resolution as well as economic and social development in those areas.
The UN resolution also called for an end to Zionist settlement activities in the occupied Arab territories.
The Jerusalem Post reported on Wednesday that the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden did not vote against a UN General Assembly Resolution affirming the right of return for Palestinian refugees. In doing so, said the newspaper, the U.S. president has broken the voting pattern on the Zionist regime set by his predecessor Donald Trump.
Under Trump, all such UN texts received an automatic “no” vote. The Obama administration generally abstained on this particular reaffirmation resolution, which comes up annually before the UN General Assembly.
“This year, the United States returns to a position of abstention on the text ‘Assistance to Palestine Refugees’,” the Jerusalem Post reported the U.S. Deputy Ambassador Richard Mills as telling the General Assembly’s Fourth Committee on Tuesday.