On September 18, 2024, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) passed a resolution demanding Israel’s immediate withdrawal from the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) of East Jerusalem, Gaza, and the West Bank. The resolution used strong language, saying that “Israel’s continued presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory is illegal” and that it is “under an obligation” to withdraw its “unlawful presence” in the OPT “as soon as possible.” The resolution was submitted by the State of Palestine, which was only recognised as a legitimate member of the United Nations in June 2024 as a result of global outrage over Israel’s slaughter in Gaza. The outcome was predictable: 43 countries abstained, 124 voted for the resolution, and only 14 voted against it.

The UNGA resolution comes after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued its verdict in July 2024. The ICJ ruled that Israel’s prolonged seizure of the OPT is illegitimate and must be stopped immediately. The language used by the ICJ is very potent: “The sustained abuse by Israel of its position as an occupying Power, through annexation and an assertion of permanent control over the Occupied Palestinian Territory and continued frustration of the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, violates fundamental principles of international law and renders Israel’s presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory unlawful.” This declaration and the subsequent UNGA resolution are both clear and unambiguous.

Going from one community to the next in Palestine’s West Bank, I saw shattered water cistern after broken water cistern. Every time, the story was the same. Palestinians, deprived of water by illegal Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) and the Israeli military, do their best to collect rainwater in cisterns. But every time the Israelis learn about this ancient human tradition, the Israeli military arrives and destroys the cisterns. It has become a component of Israeli occupation rituals. Following the 1967 war, the Israeli government enacted Military Orders 158 (November 1967) and 498 (November 1974), which required Palestinians to acquire permits from the Israeli military before they could erect any water installation.

During one of these visits, an elderly Palestinian guy inquired whether I had read the Torah or the Bible. I told him I had read the Bible in bits and pieces, but not in order. He then told me a story from Deuteronomy about the Jews’ departure from Egypt, where they were enslaved. They are taught that Egypt was a land of milk and honey, whereas Palestine is a region that lacks water. The Jews would have to rely on the “rains of heaven” rather than the rivers that irrigated Egypt. The rains of heaven, observed the old Palestinian man, “are denied to us.” Israelis residing in the unauthorised settlements in West Bank.

I was horrified by the lack of basic water supplies in Gaza a decade ago, when I was there only once. Wadi Gaza, which flows across the Gaza Strip, is the confluence of rivers flowing into the West Bank (Wadi al-Khalil) and the al-Naqab desert (Wadi Besor). It would be unwise to drink from Wadi Gaza or the coastal aquifer, the majority of which had been poisoned by insufficient sewage facilities in Gaza even before the horrific war. Even in 2014, the majority of Gazans obtained their water from pricey private tankers. There were no other options. If the situation in Gaza was unbearable a decade ago, it is now unimaginable. The ordinary Palestinian in Gaza has been forcibly ejected

As a result, the UN General Assembly voted decisively in favour of Israel exiting the OPT and ceasing its annexationist practices. The Israeli government reacted with defiance, claiming that the resolution “tells a one-sided, fictional story” in which there is no aggression against Israel. However, the Israeli administration ignores the occupation, which serves as the framework for the entire conflict. People who are occupied have the right to resist their occupation, thus the violence against Israel is relevant to note but not central to the discussion. The ICJ and the UN General Assembly both agree that Israel’s occupation must cease. The Israeli government does not address this problem, claiming that there is no occupation and that they have the freedom to annexe as much land as possible .This is conceivable, even if it involves ethnic cleansing. Cutting off access to water, for example, is one of the tools used in the ongoing genocidal atrocities.