159 countries voted in favor of the resolution, while 7 countries, including Israel and the United States, opposed it, and 11 countries abstained from voting

A UN committee adopted, on Wednesday evening, by a majority of 159 votes, a draft resolution on the permanent sovereignty of the Palestinian people over their natural resources.

The official Palestinian news agency, WAFA, said that the United Nations Committee on Economic and Financial Affairs (Second Committee) adopted the draft resolution entitled: “Permanent sovereignty of the Palestinian people in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem, and of the Arab population in the occupied Syrian Golan over their natural resources,” submitted by the Group of 77 and China.

It added that 159 countries voted in favor of the resolution, including all member states of the European Union, while 7 countries opposed it: the United States, Israel, Canada, Nauru, Micronesia, Palau, and Argentina, while 11 countries abstained.

The resolution, according to the agency, refers to the advisory opinion issued by the International Court of Justice on July 19, 2024, on the legal consequences arising from Israel’s policies and practices in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem, and on the illegality of Israel’s continued presence in the occupied Palestinian territory.

On that date, the International Court of Justice said, during a public session in The Hague, that “the continued presence of the State of Israel in the occupied Palestinian territory is illegal,” stressing that The Palestinians have the "right to self-determination" and that "Israeli settlements in the occupied territories must be evacuated".

The resolution also "affirms a set of principles and foundations relating to Palestinian natural resources, as an application of the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights".

Israel began building the wall in 2002, made of cement slabs ranging in height from 4.5 to 9 meters, along a length of 712 kilometers, and passing through the occupied West Bank.

Israel says it built the wall for "security reasons", but the Palestinians and the United Nations say it was built "to annex Palestinian lands to Israel".

In 2004, the International Court of Justice in The Hague issued an advisory opinion declaring the wall illegal, given that it was built on occupied Palestinian lands.

The UN resolution also expresses "deep concern over Israel's exploitation of Palestinian natural resources and the destruction it is causing to Palestinian land and agriculture, the widespread destruction of agricultural structures and infrastructure, particularly those related to water and electricity supplies, especially in the Gaza Strip, as well as the harmful effects of illegal settlements on all forms of Palestinian life."

The resolution also affirmed "the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people to their natural resources" and called on Israel to "cease the exploitation of these resources," according to the same source.

It also affirmed the right of the Palestinian people "to demand compensation for Israel's exploitation of these resources" and that "Israel's construction of settlements, the wall and other actions are harmful to the Palestinian environment."

The agency quoted the Permanent Representative of Palestine to the United Nations, Riyad Mansour, as saying that "this overwhelming vote in favor of the resolution confirms once again the international community's support for the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, including their sovereign right to their natural resources."

In previous reports, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) estimated the losses to the Palestinian economy due to preventing Palestinians from exploiting Area C and its natural resources at about $3.8 billion annually.

The Oslo II Agreement (1995) classified the West Bank into three areas: Area A, which is under full Palestinian control; Area B, which is under Israeli security, civil and administrative control; and Area C, which is under Israeli civil, administrative and security control. The latter constitutes about 60 percent of the West Bank.

The vote on the UN resolution coincides with a war of extermination waged by Israel since October 7, 2023, which has left about 147,000 Palestinians dead and wounded, most of them children and women, and more than 10,000 missing, amid massive destruction and famine that has killed dozens of children and elderly people, in one of the worst humanitarian disasters in the world.

Israel continues its massacres, ignoring the UN Security Council resolution to end them immediately, and the International Court of Justice’s orders to take measures to prevent acts of genocide and improve the catastrophic humanitarian situation in Gaza.