Monitoring Desk
ISLAMABAD/UNITED NATIONS: Some 40 nations have called on the Israeli government to lift ‘punitive’ sanctions it imposed on Palestinian authorities earlier this month over its push to get the United Nations (UN) top court issue an advisory opinion on the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories.
On December 30, the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution requesting an opinion from the International Court of Justice on the issue of Israeli occupation. In retaliation, Israeli government announced a series of sanctions, including financial ones, on 6 January against the Palestinian Authorities to make it “pay the price” for pushing for a resolution.
‘Punitive’ sanctions
After the resolution passed last month, Israel decided to cut funds from the Palestinian Authority for the benefit of Israeli “terror victims”. It also revoked the special travel permit of the Palestinian Authority’s foreign minister, and denied benefits to certain Palestinian officials, among other steps.
In a statement to journalists on Monday, some forty United Nations member nations, reaffirming their “unwavering support” for the International Court of Justice and the international law, expressed “deep concern regarding the Israeli decision to imposed punitive measures against the Palestinian citizens, leadership and civil society following the request by the UN, General Assembly” to the court.
The UN members said that “Regardless of each nation position on the resolution, we reject punitive measures in response to request for an advisory opinion by the ICJ, and the more broadly in response to a United Nations, General Assembly resolution, and call for their immediate reversal,”.
The statement is signed by nations that voted for this resolution (Algeria, Argentina, Pakistan, Ireland, South Africa, and Belgium, among others but also by some that abstained Japan, France, and South Korea, and others that voted against it, like Estonia and Germany.
“This is significant as it expresses that regardless of how nations have voted, they are united in rejecting these punitive measures,” Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations said in a statement.
Asked about the members’ statement, a spokesperson for the United Nations secretary-general reiterated Antonio Guterres’s “deep concern” about “recent Israeli measures against Palestinian Authorities,” stressing that “there could be no retaliation” in connection with the ICJ.
United Nations Security Council meeting on the Palestinian problem is scheduled for Wednesday.
