Jewish Organizations React to the U.N. General Assembly Yerushalayim Resolution

Agudath Israel Statement on This Morning’s U.N. General Assembly Vote

The countries that voted this morning in the United Nations General Assembly to demand that the U.S. rescind its recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and its plan to move its embassy there once again showed their true and ugly colors.

The General Assembly has long been a ludicrously anti-Israel forum, a grandiose soapbox where nations, including more than a few whose regimes routinely oppress, torture and murder their own citizens, wax righteously indignant at Israel’s audacity in defending herself against her many bloodthirsty enemies.

Today’s vote, however, forged a new low in the world body’s antipathy toward Israel. Not only does the majority of the General Assembly seek to deprive Israel of the right to determine her own capital, but it seeks to prevent our own country from respecting that right.

In 1995, Congress passed a law explicitly establishing the position of the United States that “Jerusalem should be recognized as the capital of the State of Israel,” and requiring that the American Embassy in Israel be moved to Jerusalem. Earlier this month, President Trump announced the implementation of that law.

We are proud of the steadfast friendship toward Israel and recognition of reality that Congress and President Trump have demonstrated. We applaud President Trump and Ambassador Haley for their courageous articulation of American values in the lion’s den of the United Nations.

And we remain ever hopeful that other responsible nations will come to recognize the special status of Jerusalem not only to the state of Israel but to the Jewish people throughout the millennia.

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Conference of Presidents Leaders Denounce Shameful UN General Assembly Resolution on Jerusalem as Israel’s Capital

December 21, 2017 New York, NY. . .Leaders of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations today denounced the resolution on Jerusalem adopted by the UN General Assembly, as the latest example in a long history of counterproductive measures that undermine the prospect of negotiations with Israel. The leaders commended the responsible actions of those countries voting against the resolution, and noted the important message sent by the sixty-five countries that abstained or did not cast a vote.

Stephen M. Greenberg, Chairman and Malcolm Hoenlein, Executive Vice Chairman & CEO of the Conference of Presidents, said, “The shameful one-sided, anti-Israel UN General Assembly resolution adopted today is another stain on the United Nations that willfully disregards historic facts, distorts the present day reality and reinforces Palestinian resistance to negotiations with Israel.

Rather than contributing to bringing the parties closer to a negotiated end of the conflict, this resolution adds to the long record of biased anti-Israel resolutions adopted in the General Assembly, by UNESCO, the Human Rights Council and other UN bodies, entangling the UN in strategies to evade meaningful negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.

The resolution did not specifically refer to the United States by name, but a parade of countries including Yemen, the principal sponsor of the resolution, as well as Syria, Iran, Venezuela, North Korea, and most of the others speaking in favor of the resolution prior to the vote, harshly criticized the U.S. for its decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

We are once again grateful to the U.S. and Ambassador Nikki Haley for displaying steadfast moral leadership in defense of what is right and in the U.S. national interest, and in support of Israel.

We also note those EU member states that had the courage to take a path that diverged from the misguided EU consensus in favor of the resolution and to other countries that resisted supporting this ill-conceived resolution.”

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