Group of 77 and China
Palestinian Authority (PA) president Mahmoud Abbas arrived in New York on 14 January to take over the presidency of the Group of 77 and China at the United Nations (UN). President Abbas also met with UN secretary general António Guterres at the UN building, where they discussed recent developments in the occupied Palestinian territories. On 15 January, the PA foreign minister Riyad al-Maliki said, also at the UN in New York, that Palestine would launch a bid to become a full member of the UN (for more on these developments, see Intra-Palestinian Dynamics).
Settler Violence
UN Middle East envoy Nickolay Mladenov condemned the killing of a 38-year-old West Bank Palestinian by Israeli settlers on 27 January. He called the murder “shocking and unacceptable” and called for Israel to “put an end to settler violence and bring those responsible to justice.” 30 other Palestinians were wounded from the live ammunition the Israeli settlers used in killing the West Bank resident (for more on the incident, see Palestinian-Israeli Conflict). Later, on 29 January, the spokesperson for the UN Office for the High Commissioner for Human Rights Rupert Colville denounced the settler attack, saying, “Israel, as the occupying power, is obliged under international humanitarian law to protect the Palestinian population from such attacks. Those responsible for settler violence must be brought to account.” Middle East Envoy Mladenov also said at the UN Security Council (UNSC) that the UN Interim Forces in Lebanon had not been given access to the tunnels Israel alleged to have destroyed and said to be built by Hezbollah (for more on Operation Northern Shield, see Israel; for more on Lebanon’s response to the Israeli operation, see Lebanon).
UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization
Israel and the U.S. officially quit the UN cultural organ, the UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) for what they allege to be “anti-Israel bias.” The 2 countries announced they were leaving UNESCO in October 2017 but the decisions did not take effect until 1 January. Israel’s grievances with UNESCO are based on their designation of Palestinian heritage sites as Palestinian and their criticism of the Israeli excavations under the holy sites in Jerusalem. Israel and the U.S. have not been paying dues to UNESCO since Palestine became a member of the organization in 2011.
UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East
It was reported on 20 January that Israel was set to close East Jerusalem UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) schools in 2020. The reporting stipulated that the schools would be replaced by schools run by the Jerusalem municipality. A spokesperson for UNRWA said that, “UNRWA’s existence in Jerusalem is not a gift from Israel. . . . There are bilateral agreements binding on Israel to respect the agency’s installations, jurisdiction and immunity in Jerusalem.” The Israeli mayor of Jerusalem Nir Barkat said in October 2018 that, “We [Israel] are putting an end to the lie of the ‘Palestinian refugee problem’ and the attempts at creating a false sovereignty within a sovereignty.” UNRWA provides schools for 3,000 Palestinian refugees in East Jerusalem.
Aid
2 organs of the UN, the UN International Children’s Emergency Fund and the World Food Programme (WFP), signed an agreement to secure aid for 6,000 of the most vulnerable families in Gaza. The aid will be provided on electronic assistance cards and can be used for blankets, clothing, hygiene kits, and school uniforms. The initiative is designed to prevent the spread of diseases as the population in Gaza becomes increasingly prone to outbreaks due to the high level of poverty. The agreement comes after the WFP announced that it would not be able to provide services for 27,000 Palestinians in the West Bank and that it was reducing its aid for another 165,000 in the West Bank and Gaza by 20 percent due to a lack of funding.
UN Security Council
The spokesperson for secretary-general of the UN António Guterres said in a statement that Secretary-General Guterres was grateful for the work of the Temporary International Presence in Hebron (TIPH) and that he “further hopes that an agreement can be found by the parties to preserve the TIPH’s long-standing and valuable contribution to conflict prevention and the protection of Palestinians in Hebron.” Israel ended the TIPH mandate effective on midnight 1/31 (for more on the TIPH, see Israel). A statement drafted by Kuwait and Indonesia expressing regret for Israel’s unilateral decision to end the TIPH mandate at the UNSC was blocked by the U.S. on 6 February. The statement was brought up for discussion by the 2 countries at the UNSC and stated the importance of the TIPH’s “efforts to foster calm in a highly sensitive area and fragile situation on the ground, which risks further deteriorating.”
On 21 March, U.S. president Donald Trump announced that his administration “fully recognize[s] Israel’s Sovereignty [sic] over the Golan Heights” via Twitter (see United States). The UNSC held an emergency meeting on 28 March following a request by the Syrian mission with support from France. At the meeting, 14 of the 15 members of the UNSC condemned the U.S. administration’s recognition of Israel’s annexation of the Golan Heights. However, no formal action was taken as the U.S. would veto a vote on the issue.
Earlier in March, the UNSC discussed Israel’s deduction of the PA tax revenue (see Israel). Kuwait’s ambassador to the UN Mansour al-Otaibi said after the closed-door meeting that an “overwhelming” number of the 15 UNSC members opposed Israel’s unilateral deduction in the PA’s tax revenue.
UN Human Rights Council
The UN Human Rights Council (UNHCR) released a report on the Israeli response to the Great March of Return protest covering 30 March to 31 December 2018. Their investigation showed that 189 Palestinians had been killed in relation to the protest and that at least 187 of the Israeli-caused fatalities were illegal under international law. It also found that Israel’s use of lethal force to maim and kill protesters were impermissible as they were “neither necessary nor proportionate.” The report also stated that Israel killed 35 children, 3 “clearly marked paramedics,” 2 journalists, and 5 people with disabilities. The commission further stated that on several occasions where “protected groups” were killed, there were “reasonable grounds to believe that that Israeli snipers shot them intentionally.” The chairman of the commission behind the report said, “Israeli soldiers committed violations of international human rights and humanitarian law. Some of those violations may constitute war crimes or crimes against humanity.” He added that, “These violations clearly warrant criminal investigation and prosecution.” The PA presidency issued a statement that the report “proves what we have always said, that is Israel is committing war crimes against our people in the Gaza Strip and in the West Bank, including Jerusalem.” The statement further called on the International Criminal Court “to take immediate actions.” Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected the report, saying, “The council has set new records of hypocrisy and lies out of an obsessive hatred for Israel.” On 22 March, the UNHCR adopted the report in a vote where 8 countries voted against, 15 abstained, and 23 voted to adopt.
The UNHRC also delayed, for a 3d time, publishing a database of companies doing business in Israeli settlements. The work on the database has been ongoing since 2016. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said in a letter to the president of the council that she needed more time to consider it, “given the novelty of the mandate and its legal, methodological and factual complexity.”