Prior to the UN General Assembly’s vote last Wednesday calling for Jerusalem’s Old City, Judea and Samaria to be free of Jews, António Guterres, the global body’s secretary-general, told reporters that he would back implementation of the resolution should it pass.
The resolution drafted by the Palestinian Authority passed by a 124-14 margin with 43 abstentions. It is meant to give force to the International Court of Justice’s advisory opinion in July, when the UN high court in The Hague declared Israeli presence to be illegal in any area over the 1949 armistice line.
Guterres’ spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric was asked during a press briefing on Thursday whether the secretary-general now backs the resolution calling for the Old City in Jerusalem to be Judenrein, which he said he would support.
“He’s the secretary-general of the UN. If there’s a resolution that passes and that asks him — clearly requests him to do something — he will do so, because those are the instructions he receives from member states,” Dujarric replied. “That’s what happened, and he encourages member states to respect the resolutions that are passed.”
The resolution mandates “evacuating all settlers” within a year; the United Nations defines settlers as Jews living beyond the 1949 armistice line, including those in Oslo Accords-defined Area C of Judea and Samaria, and in Jerusalem’s Old City.
Dujarric denied that is the case.
“The language supports an end to the occupation, which is what the secretary general and previous secretary generals have always called for,” he said.
“Those Jews living in the Old City are defined as ‘settlers’ by the United Nations,” JNS clarified.
“He has called for an end to the occupation, and he has called for the end of settlements,” said Dujarric, deftly ducking the point before taking another reporter’s question.
The resolution lost support from some countries who said it went well beyond the contours of the UN court’s advisory opinion. It also bans arms sales to the Israel Defense Forces, including any equipment that would be expected reasonably to be used in the territory over the 1949 lines, and calls for a boycott of all products produced by Jews in those areas.
Guterres offered no public indication that he disagreed with any part of the resolution.
The eight-page resolution lacks any mention of Israeli security concerns, historic ties to the land or the Hamas massacre in southern Israel on Oct. 7.
General Assembly resolutions lack legal force, but the resolution’s passage last Wednesday is expected to be used in international courts and other fora to seek additional action against the Jewish State.
It is widely expected that the Palestinian Authority will request that the UN Security Council take up the issue. Security Council resolutions are binding, but the United States would be expected to thwart such an effort with its veto power.
