UN defies warnings from the US and votes overwhelmingly to condemn Trump's decision on Jerusalem

AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta

• The UN General Assembly overwhelmingly passed a resolution condemning the Trump administration's recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital.
• A total of 128 countries voted in favor of the text.
• The US had threatened to cut aid to countries who opposed the motion.

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The United Nations General Assembly on Thursday defied warnings from the United States and overwhelmingly passed a resolution condemning the Trump administration's recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital and calling on countries not to move their diplomatic missions to the city.

A total of 128 countries voted in favor of the text, defying the threats — forcefully reiterated by the US's ambassador, Nikki Haley — to cut aid to countries who oppose the motion.

Nine countries — the US, Israel, Togo, Micronesia, Guatemala, Nauru, Palau, Marshall Islands and Honduras — voted against the resolution.

There were 35 abstentions, including a number of countries who had been widely expected to support the move, such as Colombia, Mexico, Malawi and Rwanda.

By abstaining, Hungary, Croatia, Latvia, Romania and the Czech Republic broke European Union consensus on the vote. The EU had previously vehemently rejected any attempt to change Jerusalem's status in the absence of a final peace deal between Israelis and Palestinians.

On Monday, 14 out of 15 members of the world body voted in favor of the resolution, which failed to pass because of an American veto. There are no vetoes at the General Assembly, but resolutions passed there are not legally binding, as opposed to those in the Security Council.

In November 2012, 138 countries voted in favor of a General Assembly resolution giving nonmember state status to the "State of Palestine." Nine countries opposed the motion, with 41 abstentions.

Less than a month ago, 151 countries voted in favor of a General Assembly resolution that condemns Israel in much harsher terms than Thursday's. Only six countries opposed the motion, while nine abstained.

Recalling previous General Assembly and Security Council resolutions, the text passed Thursday expressed "deep regret at recent decisions concerning the status of Jerusalem," referring to Trump's December 6 decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital and his announced intention to move the US embassy to the city.

The resolution also affirmed that "any decisions and actions which purport to have altered, the character, status or demographic composition of the Holy City of Jerusalem have no legal effect, are null and void and must be rescinded in compliance with relevant resolutions of the Security Council, and in this regard, calls upon all States to refrain from the establishment of diplomatic missions in the Holy City of Jerusalem."

AP Photo/Richard Drew

Without naming any country, it expressed "deep regret at recent decisions concerning the status of Jerusalem."

Before the vote, several officials addressed the "emergency special session" on "illegal Israeli actions in Occupied East Jerusalem and the rest of the Occupied Palestinian Territory." The session was called by Yemen and Turkey.

Haley defended the administration's recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

"The decision does not prejudge any final status issues, including Jerusalem's boundaries. The decision does not preclude a two-state solution, if the parties agree to that," she said. "The decision does nothing to harm peace efforts. Rather, the president's decision reflects the will of the American people and our right as a nation to choose the location of our embassy."

The US will move its embassy to Jerusalem, Haley said. "That's what the American people want us to do. And it's the right thing to do."

No vote at the UN will make any difference on the American decision, she declared. But this vote will be remembered, she vowed, when America is being asked once again to make the single largest contribution to the UN budget or when "so many countries come calling on us, as they so often do, to pay even more and to use our influence for their benefit."

"Those who support today's resolution are like puppets pulled by the strings of the Palestinian puppet masters," Israel's ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, said. "You are like marionettes forced to dance while the Palestinian leadership looks on with glee."

Passing the resolution distances the prospects for peace, he added.

"If you vote for it, you're rejecting peace," he said, adding that he had no doubt that this resolution would end up "in the trash bin of history."

During his speech, Danon displayed a coin from 67 AD minted during the Jewish revolt against the Romans, replicas of which had been distributed to the UN ambassadors before the vote.

"On this coin is written 'Freedom of Zion.' It proves the ancient connection of Jews to Jerusalem," Danon said. "No Unesco declaration, no empty speeches, no General Assembly resolution will ever drive us from Jerusalem."

AP Photo/Evan Vucci

The Palestinian Authority's foreign minister, Riyad al-Maliki, attacked the US recognition of Jerusalem as an act of "aggression."

The Palestinian Authority accepts the US's right to make sovereign decisions, but only as long they are in line with international law, he said.

The Turkish foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, called Trump's Jerusalem recognition a violation of international law and an "attack on all universal values."

He says that a member state threatened all the other members to vote no or "face the consequences," likely referring to the US. Countries were threatened with development aid cut, he went on.

"This is bullying and this chamber will not do that," he said. "It is unethical to think the votes and dignity are for sale … We will not be intimidated. You may be strong, but that does not make you right.

Israeli officials had rejected the vote's outcome even before it took place.

"The State of Israel flatly rejects this vote even before it is held," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said earlier on Thursday. "Jerusalem is our capital. We will continue to build in it, and foreign embassies, led by the US embassy, will move to Jerusalem. It will happen."

In the run-up to Thursday's vote, Israeli diplomats stationed abroad made strenuous efforts to get as many countries as possible to oppose or abstain from the resolution.

"The Foreign Ministry is continuing its efforts to persuade as many countries as possible not to support the resolution, including by avoiding the vote," a Foreign Ministry spokesman, Emmanuel Nahshon, said hours before the vote.

"It is an effort stretching across the globe, in every continent," he said. "Special effort is being made in Europe, in the hope of preventing a European consensus supporting the resolution."

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