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 The 129 countries that voted in favour of this resolution showed how irresponsible they are, and their very behaviour undermines peace prospects far more than any declaration of the truth by the US could. As Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon said, ‘no General Assembly resolution will ever drive us away from Jerusalem’.”

The Australian Jewish Association stated: “The UN has again proven itself to be a “house of darkness and lies”. No amount of resolutions of lies can delete the 3000-year Jewish history in Jerusalem which was established as the eternal capital of the Jewish nation, a status reaffirmed in 1948 with the establishment of the modern State of Israel. Jerusalem was established in biblical times as the capital for the Jewish nation with Kings David and Solomon ruling from there. It has NEVER been the capital of an Arab/Muslim entity.

As recently as 30 November 2017, Australia abstained on an UN resolution which disavowed Israeli ties to Jerusalem. AJA along with some Christian groups and media commentators voiced objections to this abstention, which defies historical fact and current reality.

The Australian Jewish Association must again express profound disappointment that Australia meekly abstained for the second time in a month instead of clearly voting against such a shameful resolution. This time it is even worse. Australia once again failed to make a principled stand and did not clearly oppose a resolution which attacks two of its key allies – Israel and the United States.
AJA recognises the Australian government’s obvious good friendship with Israel and the US. But countries should be able to rely on the support of good friends on such matters of principle. A vote to abstain when good friends are being falsely lambasted is inadequately supportive and seems cowardly.

Why did Australia do this? 

But Israel’s ambassador to Australia Mark Sofer welcomed Canberra’s decision.

He told SBS: “There are enormous amounts of constraints and pulls and pushes, and we appreciate the Australian vote,” Mr Sofer said.

“Australia didn’t find itself drawn into yet another Israel-bashing resolution.” He stressed that Jerusalem has been Israel’s capital “since immemorial”.

The Israel Institute of New Zealand stated: “New Zealand has further entrenched UN discrimination against the only Jewish state by voting with the mob, against sovereign nations being allowed to declare their own capitals.

There are 193 member states of the United Nations. Of these, 125 – the Non-aligned movement, which includes the 57 member states of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation – are inherently anti-Israel and anti-democratic. It is little wonder that there are disproportionately more resolutions passed against Israel than any other country (by a ratio of 20:1) when countries like Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Iran, North Korea, and Venezuela dictate the agenda.

And New Zealand “joined the bullies” in voting for the resolution, as Israel Institute of New Zealand director, Dr David Cumin, told RadioNZ.

Australia and Canada, our traditional allies, abstained from voting along with 35 other nations, including five EU nations that broke EU consensus. Nine countries voted against the resolution and a further 21 did not vote at all. The vast majority of the 128 positive votes were from the 125 Non-aligned movement countries.

Asked by TVNZ how the vote would affect any future peace talks, Dr Cumin said:

The only way it would derail peace talks is by once again sending a signal to the Palestinians that  they don’t need to negotiate; that they can work things out through the UN.”Dr David Cumin

And talking to Te Karere, Dr Cumin said it was disappointing that New Zealand was not standing up to the bullies at the UN who push resolutions that “seek to deny Jews access to their most tapu sites” and to ignore the tangata whenua status of Jews in Israel.