India abstains on UNGA resolution asking ICJ opinion on “violation” of Palestinian rights

The draft resolution was adopted with 87 votes in favour, 26 against and 53 abstentions, including by India

India abstained in the U.N. General Assembly on a resolution that asked the International Court of Justice for its opinion on the legal consequences of Israel’s “prolonged occupation” and annexation of the Palestinian territory.

The draft resolution ‘Israeli practices affecting the human rights of the Palestinian people in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem’ was adopted by a recorded vote on Friday, with 87 votes in favour, 26 against and 53 abstentions, including by India.

The resolution decided to request the UN's highest judicial body to “render an advisory opinion” on “what are the legal consequences arising from the ongoing violation by Israel of the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, from its prolonged occupation, settlement and annexation of the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, including measures aimed at altering the demographic composition, character and status of the Holy City of Jerusalem, and from its adoption of related discriminatory legislation and measures.”

It also asked the Assembly “how do the policies and practices of Israel… affect the legal status of the occupation, and what are the legal consequences that arise for all States and the United Nations from this status?”

The U.S. and Israel voted against the resolution while Brazil, Japan, Myanmar, and France were among those that abstained.

Before the vote, Israel's Ambassador to the United Nations Gilad Erdan said that the “outrageous resolution” calling for the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice is a “moral stain on the U.N. and every country that supports it. No international body can decide that the Jewish people are “occupiers” in their own homeland. Any decision from a judicial body which receives its mandate from the morally bankrupt and politicised UN is completely illegitimate.”

Mr. Erdan added that the decision to hold a vote that deals with Israel on Shabbat is another example of the “moral decay” of the U.N., which prevents Israel's position from being heard in a vote whose results are predetermined.