UN Resolution Affirms Palestinian Sovereignty Over Natural Resources in Occupied Territories

A United Nations committee has passed a resolution with a majority of 159 votes supporting the permanent sovereignty of the Palestinian people over their natural resources.

According to the official Palestinian news agency Wafa, the UN Committee on Economic and Financial Issues (Second Committee) adopted the resolution titled: “Permanent Sovereignty of the Palestinian People in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and of the Arab Population in the Occupied Syrian Golan over their Natural Resources.” The resolution was introduced by the Group of 77 and China.

Wafa reported that 159 countries voted in favor of the resolution, including all European Union member states, while seven countries opposed it: the United States, Israel, Canada, Nauru, Micronesia, Palau, and Argentina. Eleven countries abstained from voting.

The resolution references the advisory opinion issued by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on July 19, 2024, regarding the legal consequences of Israel’s policies and practices in the occupied Palestinian territories, including East Jerusalem, and the illegality of Israel’s continued presence in these territories.

In a public session in The Hague, the ICJ stated that “Israel’s continued presence in the occupied Palestinian territories is illegal,” emphasizing that Palestinians have the “right to self-determination” and that “existing Israeli settlements on occupied land must be evacuated.”

The resolution reaffirms “several principles related to Palestinian natural resources, citing the Geneva Convention on the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights as applicable to the occupied Palestinian territory.”

Israel began constructing the separation wall in 2002, consisting of concrete slabs between 4.5 and 9 meters high, stretching 712 kilometers and running through the occupied West Bank.

In 2004, the ICJ issued an advisory opinion declaring the wall illegal, as it was built on occupied Palestinian land.

The UN resolution also expresses “serious concern over Israel’s exploitation of Palestinian natural resources, the extensive damage it causes to Palestinian land and agriculture, and the widespread destruction of agricultural infrastructure, particularly related to water and electricity supplies, especially in Gaza, as well as the harmful effects of illegal settlements on all aspects of Palestinian life.”

Additionally, the resolution “affirms the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people to their natural resources,” demanding that Israel “cease its exploitation of these resources,” according to the report.

The resolution emphasizes the Palestinian people’s right “to seek compensation for Israel’s exploitation of these resources” and condemns Israel’s construction of settlements and the separation wall as actions detrimental to the Palestinian environment.

The Palestinian Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Riyad Mansour, stated that “this overwhelming vote in favor of the resolution reaffirms the international community’s commitment to supporting the Palestinian people’s inalienable rights, including their sovereign right over their natural resources.”