The UN resolution against Trump’s Jerusalem declaration, which passed Thursday, received less support than expected.
A non-binding resolution introduced in the United Nations General Assembly rejecting President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital as “null and void” passed, but with “significantly lower” support than the Palestinians had hoped for, the Associated Press (AP) reported Thursday.
The resolution passed 128-9 with 35 abstentions. There were 21 nations that did not show up for the vote. Supporters of the measure had been expecting 150 votes but the final tally “was significantly lower than its supporters had hoped for.” AP also suggested that the number of nations not supporting the resolution was a “victory” for the Trump administration, whose threat to cut funding to nations opposing its recognition of Jerusalem had “an impact.”
The resolution was opposed not only by Israel and the United States, but also by Guatemala, Honduras and Togo, the German broadcaster Deutsche Welle reported. Canada, Mexico and a number of Eastern European countries and African nations abstained.
In her speech ahead of the vote, US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley not only rebuked the world body for its anti-Israel bias, calling it “a hostile place for the state of Israel,” which also targeted the US “for the very act of exercising our right as a sovereign nation.”
Haley reiterated that the “United States is by far the single largest contributor to the United Nations and its agencies,” helping the UN “[produces] great good,” but that when, despite its contributions, the US is “disrespected” in the UN, it might be time to “spend our resources in more productive ways.”
In a statement issued after the resolution’s passing, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also noted that “a growing number of countries refused to participate in this theater of the absurd. So I appreciate that, and especially I want to again express our thanks to President Trump and Ambassador Haley, for their stalwart defense of Israel and their stalwart defense of the truth.”
Netanyahu has invested significant diplomatic efforts to foster ties with countries with whom Israel has not historically shared a productive relationship, and specifically the African continent, with which the Jewish state has shared its expertise in fields such as agriculture and technology. According to the Israeli leader, stronger ties with Africa will ultimately lead to a shift in voting trends at the UN and other global forums, thus reversing what he has labeled the “automatic majority against Israel.”
By: The Tower and United with Israel Staff
