A UN commission today adopted a draft resolution asking the International Court of Justice for an urgent opinion on the legal consequences of denying the Palestinian people the right to self-determination following Israel’s actions since 1967.

The request was approved in the UN General Assembly Special Committee on Politics and Decolonisation with 98 votes in favour, 17 against and 52 abstentions.

Israel, which occupied PALESTINIAN territory at the end of the 1967 war and has kept them confined to the West Bank and Gaza Strip ever since, has vehemently contested the measure, arguing that it will destroy any chance of reconciliation with the Palestinians.

The request was approved In the UN General Assembly Special Committee on Politics and Decolonisation with 98 votes in favour, 17 against and 52 abstentions. The resolution will now go forward for a final vote before the end of this year in the Assembly of 193 member states, where its approval is almost certain.

The draft resolution points to Israel’s violation of the Palestinian right to self-determination, “with its prolonged occupation, colonisation and annexation of the occupied Palestinian territory since 1967, including measures aimed at changing the demographic composition, character and status of the holy city of Jerusalem and its adoption of related discriminatory legislation and measures”.

If the draft is adopted, the resolution will ask the International Court of Justice to rule on how these Israeli policies and practices “affect the legal status of the occupation and what are the resultant legal consequences for all states and the UN”.

The International Court of Justice, also known as the world court, is one of the main organs of the United Nations and is tasked with resolving conflicts between countries. However, its opinions are not binding.

This is not the first time that this judicial body has been asked for an opinion in relation to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which has lasted for almost 75 years.

In 2004, the court said that a barrier Israel had built, mainly inside the occupied West Bank and in East Jerusalem – which, together with the Gaza Strip, are the territories Palestinians intend to form their new state – was “contrary to international law”.

The draft resolution also demands that Israel comply with the 2004 court decision and stop erecting the wall, destroy it and pay compensation for all the damage caused by its construction, “which has had a serious impact on the human rights” and living conditions of Palestinians.

The request for a new opinion was one of six resolutions related to the Palestinians adopted today by the Special Committee on Politics and Decolonisation.

Ahead of the vote, Israel’s Ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, told UN member states that they had a choice between supporting Israeli-Palestinian negotiations or “being complicit in destroying any hope of reconciliation” and perpetuating the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.

He also warned that “involving a judicial body in a decades-old conflict just to impose the demands of one side on the other will guarantee many more years of stagnation.”

“By resorting to the court, the Palestinians are given the perfect excuse to continue boycotting the negotiations and perpetuate the conflict,” the Israeli diplomat added.

After the vote, Palestinian Ambassador to the UN Riyad Mansour expressed gratitude to the member states that passed the six resolutions and quoted Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas’ speech at the annual session of the UN General Assembly in September in which he urged the mobilisation of “all elements of the existing international order based on international law, including international justice”.

Mansour thanked the countries who voted in favour of the resolution and said “nothing justifies supporting the Israeli occupation and annexation, its expulsion and expropriation of the Palestinian people”.

“Our people have the right to freedom,” he maintained, adding, “This occupation must end.”

“The day will come when our people will place the flag of Palestine over the churches of Jerusalem and the mosques of Jerusalem and Haram al-Sharif,” the Palestinian diplomat declared, saying the Muslim name for the holy place in the old city of Jerusalem that the Israelis designate as the Temple Mount.