Canada today abstained from a closely watched UN vote calling on Israel to end its “illegal presence” in the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank within a year.
The Canadian ambassador told the UN General Assembly that the motion was too one-sided to support.
Canada today abstained from a closely watched UN vote calling on Israel to end its “illegal presence” in the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank within a year.
Canada’s UN Ambassador Bob Rae told Parliament the motion was too one-sided to support, but said the Canadian government agrees that Israel is illegally occupying Palestinian territory.
The non-binding vote this morning passed by 124 to 14. Canada was one of 43 countries that abstained.
The State of Palestine presented the motion in the UN General Assembly. Israel said the vote amounted to “diplomatic terrorism.”
The resolution is based on a July ruling by the International Court of Justice that condemned Israel’s rule over territory it seized by force in 1967 as a violation of international law.
Canada last December ended a decade-long policy of backing Israel in nearly all UN votes, concerned by the lack of progress on a humanitarian ceasefire in Israel’s war with Hamas.
