The U.N. General Assembly voted Thursday on a resolution that rebukes the Trump administration’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, calling it “null and void,” with 128 votes in favor, 9 against, and 35 abstentions.
The Trump administration has viewed this vote as an attack on U.S. sovereignty.
Ambassador Nikki Haley tweeted:
The vote is in– 65 countries refused to condemn the United States and 128 voted against us. Final vote tally to follow.
— Nikki Haley (@nikkihaley) December 21, 2017
Ambassador Haley also said that, “no vote in the United Nations will make any difference,” on this issue, and that the U.S. Embassy will be moved because “it is the right thing to do.” Speaking before the General Assembly today, she said that the United States’ “decision [on Jerusalem] reflects the will of the American people and [its] right, as a nation, to choose the location [its] Embassy.”
At a Security Council session earlier this week on the same issue, the status of Jerusalem as recognized by the United States, Ambassador Haley pronounced that “the United States will not be told by any country where we can put our embassy.” She called it “an insult,” and continued that “the U.S. will be taking names.” The United States vetoed the resolution in the council.
During a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday, President Trump echoed Hayley’s comments, saying that “[UN voting countries] take hundreds of millions of dollars and even billions of dollars, and then they vote against us … well, we’ll be watching those votes. Let them vote against us; we’ll save a lot. We don’t care.”
Before the vote, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the U.N. a “house of lies,” and said that he and his government reject the vote. Yair Lapid, a prominent Israeli politician tweeted:
The UN lost its last shred of dignity today. Jerusalem is the capital of Israel, it always was and it always will be. No hypocritical vote will change that. The decision that was taken today will be wiped from the pages of history.
— יאיר לפיד Yair Lapid (@yairlapid) December 21, 2017
Among the nine countries that voted against the resolution are the United States, Israel, Guatemala, and small Island nations such as Nauru, Micronesia and Palau.
Canada, Mexico, and Australia are among the abstentions, joined by several African nations such as Rwanda, Lesotho, Benin, Uganda, South Sudan, and Equatorial Guinea.
Yemen’s U.N. ambassador Khaled Hussein Mohamed Alyemany, speaking on behalf of Arab nations and, claimed that the U.S. recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital is “a blatant violation of the rights of the Palestinian people and the Arab nations, and all Muslims and Christians of the world.” He also said that the U.S. recognition is “a dangerous violation and breach of international law.”
