Hamas Welcomes UN Resolution Affirming Palestine’s Self-Determination Right
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Hamas hailed a United Nations General Assembly resolution that affirms the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination and ends the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territory.
“This resolution is a continuation of previous ones adopted recently that affirm such a right and the subsequent UN and international obligations to put an end to the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territory and grant the Palestinian people their rights guaranteed by all international conventions,” Hisham Qasem, a member of the Palestinian resistance movement’s political bureau abroad, said on Friday.
He said the overwhelming voting in favor of the resolution shows an “increasing conviction” within the international community that the time is ripe for Palestinians to enjoy their right to self-determination, end the Israeli occupation, and prosecute this settler-colonial occupation for its heinous crimes committed against the Palestinian people over the past seven decades.
The Hamas official called on the countries that voted against the resolution or abstained to reconsider their positions.
Qasem said more resolutions are needed in favor of the Palestinian people.
The UN General Assembly on Wednesday adopted a resolution declaring that Syrians and Palestinians have sovereignty over their natural resources in the Israeli-occupied tracts of land in the strategic Golan Heights and the West Bank, including East al-Quds.
The UNGA passed the resolution on “permanent sovereignty of the Palestinian people in the Occupied Palestinian Territory,” including East al-Quds, and of “the Arab population in the occupied Syrian Golan over their natural resources,” with 159 votes in favor.
Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki on Thursday hailed the UN resolution. “Voting in favor of the resolution confirms the right of the Palestinian people and their sovereignty over their natural resources, including land, water, and energy resources.”
He said the international community should work on obliging Israel “to implement international resolutions and guarantee the right of the Palestinian people to their natural resources.”
Palestinians want the West Bank as part of a future independent Palestinian state with East al-Quds as its capital.
Israel, which captured the territory in 1967 and later annexed it in a move never recognized by the international community, calls al-Quds its indivisible capital.
More than 600,000 Israelis live in over 230 settlements built since the 1967 Israeli occupation of the West Bank and East al-Quds.
The UN Security Council has condemned Israel’s settlement activities in the occupied territories in several resolutions.