UN votes against Israel aggression, in ‘major defeat for US’

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has hailed the recent United Nations vote on recognising Israel’s use of excessive force against Palestinians as “another major defeat for the US”.

The UN General Assembly voted yesterday to recognise Israel’s excessive use of force in dealing with Palestinian protesters and announced its condemnation of Tel Aviv’s actions, as well as asking the UN chief Antonio Guterres to put forward an “international protection mechanism” for the occupied Palestinian territories.

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Following the result, Turkey’s Foreign Ministry announced in a written statement that “we welcome the adoption of the resolution on the Protection of the Palestinian People in the UN General Assembly with a vast majority.”

Responsible members of the international community have shown once again that Palestinian people will never be left alone in the face of grave violations of their fundamental rights, primarily their right to live, and will not keep silent against injustice.

Some 126 Palestinians were killed in the Gaza Strip after Israeli occupation forces used live rounds and tear gas to disperse unarmed mass protesters who gathered at the Gaza-Israel border fence.

Palestinians taking part in the Great March of Return were targeting and some 14,000 were injured as a result.

Turkey has also called on Guterres to act efficiently to fulfil the terms and decisions of the resulting resolution and to implement practical measures within its framework in order to “ensure the accountability of the perpetrators of the massacre against the Palestinian civilians who participated in the peaceful protests and to establish deterrence with a view to preventing the recurrence of such incidents in the future.”

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