Israel's ambassador to the United Nations predicted Tuesday that a U.S.-sponsored resolution condemning Hamas, the terrorist group that controls Gaza, over its rocket fire on Israel, its incitement to violence and its use of civilian resources for military purposes will be approved by the General Assembly.
The 193-member General Assembly is scheduled to vote on the U.S. draft resolution on Thursday afternoon, and Ambassador Danny Danon said he believes "we will get a majority no matter what."
The resolution was amended to gain support of the 28-member European Union, adding a reference to "relevant U.N. resolutions," though not specific ones.
If adopted, it would be the first time the General Assembly condemns Hamas, which usurped control of Gaza from the Western-backed government of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in a military coup in 2007.
The draft resolution "demands that Hamas and other militant actors including Palestinian Islamic Jihad cease activity, including by using airborne incendiary devices."
Kuwait's U.N. Ambassador Mansour al-Otaibi said Arab nations will seek to have the resolution approved by a two-thirds majority rather than a simple majority.
last week, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh sent a letter protesting the move to President of the General Assembly Maria Fernanda Espinosa, condemning the joint Israeli-American push for U.N. censure against his organization, saying that the Palestinian people "have the right to self-defense" against Israel, which he refers to as "the racist and colonial occupation that has been in place for over seven decades."
"We reiterate the right of our people to defend themselves and to resist the occupation, by all available means, including armed resistance, guaranteed by the international law," Haniyeh wrote, adding that the U.N. General Assembly has adopted "dozens of resolutions that affirm the right of peoples to independence, self-determination and struggle by all available means, peaceful and non-peaceful, for that right."
Hamas, he added, "is protected by international law that provides for the right of self-defense against the American aggression."
Haniyeh also wrote that the U.N. should instead condemn "the Israeli occupation of Palestine, the settlement enterprise and the expulsion of [West Bank] residents, as well as the Judaization of Jerusalem and the tragic siege of Gaza."
