UN assembly vote declares Trump move ‘null and void’

Palestinians hail international community support

The UN General Assembly voted 128-9 against US President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and declared it “null and void,” global media reported Friday.

In a stinging rebuke for Washington, the emergency special session of the 193-member assembly passed the resolution with 128 votes in favor, nine against and 35 abstentions on Thursday (US time) in New York.

Palestinians on Thursday hailed the vote. Nabil Abu Rdineh, a spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said in a statement that the resolution expresses the international community’s support for Palestinian rights, the Xinhua News Agency reported.

“Trump’s threats to UN members didn’t prevent them from voting in favor of the resolution,” said Abu Rdineh, Xinhua reported.

Trump had threatened to cut off financial aid to countries that voted in favor of the resolution. After the vote, US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley tweeted that the US “will be taking names,” Reuters reported.

Washington found itself isolated as many Western and Arab allies voted for the resolutions. Some allies like Egypt, Jordan and Iraq, are major recipients of US military or economic aid, although the US threat to cut aid did not single out any country.

Among countries that abstained were Argentina, Australia, Canada, Colombia, Czech Republic, Hun- gary, Mexico, Philippines, Poland, Rwanda, South Sudan and Uganda.

Guatemala, Honduras, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau and Togo joined the US and Israel in voting no.

In 2016 the US provided $13 billion in economic and military assistance to countries in sub-Saharan Africa and $1.6 billion to states in East Asia and Oceania, according to the US government’s aid agency USAID.

Earlier this month, Trump reversed decades of US policy by announcing that the US recognized Jerusalem – home to major Muslim, Jewish and Christian holy sites – as the capital of Israel and would move its embassy there.

“The US will remember this day in which it was singled out for attack in the General Assembly for the very act of exercising our right as a sovereign nation,” Haley told the 193-member General Assembly ahead of Thursday’s vote.

The status of Jerusalem is one of the thorniest obstacles to a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians. The international community does not recognize Israeli sovereignty over the full city.

French UN Ambassador Francois Delattre said in a statement that “the resolution adopted today only confirms relevant international law provisions on Jerusalem.” France voted in favor.

Trump’s rhetoric about cutting aid startled some US allies, but State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said Thursday’s vote was just one factor that Washington would take into consideration in its foreign policy.

“I just wanted to reiterate what the president had said yesterday and that was the UN vote is really not the only factor that the administration would take into consideration in dealing with our foreign relations and countries who have chosen to vote one way or the other,” she told reporters.

The UN General Assembly vote was called at the request of Arab and Muslim countries after the US vetoed the same resolution on Monday in the 15-member UN Security Council.

The remaining 14 Security Council members voted in favor of the Egypt-drafted resolution, which did not specifically mention the US or Trump but which expressed “deep regret at recent decisions concerning the status of Jerusalem.”

The UN vote comes a year after the Security Council adopted a resolution demanding an end to Israeli settlements.

That was approved with 14 votes in favor and an abstention by former US President Barack Obama’s administration, which defied heavy pressure from longtime ally Israel and Trump, who was then presidentelect, for Washington to wield its veto.

An emergency UN General Assembly meeting passed a resolution calling for the US to drop its recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital as well as its decision to move the US Embassy there. A total of 128 countries backed the resolution, nine voted against and 35 abstained. Twenty-one countries did not cast a vote.

Washington had threatened to cut off financial aid to countries that wished to vote in favor of the resolution. US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley repeated that threat just before the Thursday vote.

Washington’s threat appeared to have a certain impact, with more countries rejecting and abstaining the resolution than usual.

However, the nine countries which voted against the resolution, other than the US and Israel, are mostly Central American and Southern Pacific countries that are highly dependent on foreign aid with limited influence on international affairs.

The most influential countries that did not cast a vote or abstained are Canada, Mexico, the Philippines and Australia. The first two are neighbors of the US and members of North American Free Trade Agreement. The latter two are allies of the US.

The most influential countries in the world other than the US including Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, major members of the EU, Japan and South Korea all voted in favor of the resolution. All Islamic countries voted in favor including Egypt, a major recipient of US aid. The 128 countries voted in favor account for roughly two-thirds of the UN’s 193 members. These countries account for 90 percent of the world’s population.

The vote has tested the US capability to bend other countries with its hegemony to unwillingly support or not object to a wrongful US decision.

The result must have disappointed Washington. A majority of the world’s countries and their population ignored the US threat or refused to obey a US command such as this one. Some were due to religious beliefs but there were also pragmatic considerations weighing gains and losses. To some countries, not offending a wide range of Muslim countries is more important than pleasing the Trump administration.

The vote showed great divergence between the US and the rest of the world. The US has further isolated itself morally when it forced the world to cater to its wrongdoing.

Washington should know by now that the US is not almighty nor a representative of universal values. The US has important shortfalls and limits, and its arrogance is not sustained by matching prowess and moral high ground. The world has seen this point whether or not Washington itself is able to recognize it.