The Palestinian terror group Hamas has taunted the U.S. after the U.N. General Assembly failed to adopt a U.S. resolution condemning the militant group’s rocket attacks against Israel.
The U.S.-led resolution would have condemned Hamas for “repeatedly firing rockets into Israel and for inciting violence, thereby putting civilians at risk.”
“It would also have demanded that Hamas “and other militant actors, including Palestinian Islamic Jihad,” cease all provocative and violent actions; and condemn Hamas efforts to construct tunnels to infiltrate Israel and launch rockets into civilian areas.
But after a procedural move by Kuwait and Bolivia, the body adopted a rule that meant the resolution needed a two-thirds majority to be adopted.
The resolution ultimately picked up a plurality of 87 votes in support and 58 against — with 32 abstentions. But it was not enough to meet the two-thirds threshold needed for passage.
According to The Jerusalem Post, Hamas said the U.S. defeat was a “slap in the face of America” and a “victory for the Palestinian resistance.”
Hamas’s senior official, Khalil al-Haya, said that the result was a “victory for the Palestinian resistance in spite of American bullying.” He also thanked countries that voted against the resolution for preventing “the U.S. administration and Israel from criminalizing Palestinian resistance.”
Islamic Jihad spokesman Daoud Shehab also gloated, saying that the failure of the U.S. resolution was a “severe blow” to the U.S. and Israel, The Post reported Saturday.
On Thursday, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley ripped into the General Assembly for its failure to adopt the resolution.
“We can’t talk about peace in the Middle East until we can agree on a basic condemnation of Hamas and its terrorism,” Haley said. “The U.N. had a chance to do that today, and it failed.”
“You should be ashamed of yourselves, wait until you have to deal with terrorism in your own countries,” Israeli Ambassador Danny Danon told the General Assembly after the vote. “Your silence in the face of evil reveals your true colors.”
Ahead of the vote, Haley accused those pushing for that threshold of double standards and noted that the U.N. had never once condemned Hamas by name — despite passing 700 resolutions blasting Israel.
“That, more than anything else is a condemnation of the United Nations itself,” she said in the chamber.
Noting Hamas’ control of Gaza since 2007, she accused the militant group of turning the territory into a police state with arbitrary arrests and torture of political prisoners.
In a particularly dramatic moment, she appealed to Arab states to back the resolution and move past their hatred of Israel.
“I want to take a personal moment, and ask my Arab brothers and sisters: Is the hatred that strong? Is the hatred toward Israel so strong that you’ll defend a terrorist organization?” she asked. “One that directly causes harm to the Palestinian people? Isn’t it time to let that go?”
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