Blow to US as UN General Assembly Refuses to Condemn Hamas

The United Nations General Assembly has rejected a US-sponsored resolution seeking to condemn the Palestinian Islamic Resistance movement, Hamas.

The resolution, which was backed strongly by the Israeli regime, needed a two-thirds majority to pass on Thursday following an earlier vote in the assembly.

The proposal failed to cross the threshold, with 87 nations voting in favor and 57 voting against. Thirty-three countries abstained.

The earlier vote to require a two-thirds majority, which followed a procedural move requested by Kuwait, was much closer: 75-72, with 26 abstentions.

The resolution was one of the hawkish US ambassador to the UN envoy Nikki Haley’s final acts in the international body before she leaves her post at the end of the year.

In an official statement, Hamas thanked UN member states “that stood by our people’s resistance and the justice of their cause” and attacked Haley who it said “is known for her extremism and her positions that support the Zionist terrorism in Palestine”.

Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zahri described the vote as a “slap” to President Donald Trump’s administration.

“The failure of the American venture at the United Nations represents a slap to the US administration and confirmation of the legitimacy of the resistance,” Zahri wrote on Twitter.

Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority in the occupied West Bank, also welcomed the resolution’s defeat saying: “The Palestinian presidency will not allow for the condemnation of the national Palestinian struggle.”

In 2006, Hamas beat Fatah in parliamentary elections in the Gaza Strip and, a year later, fighting between the rival factions broke out.

When Hamas eventually took control, the Israeli regime responded by enforcing a land, sea and air blockade on Gaza. The Egyptian regime followed suit, effectively sealing the Strip – often described as the world’s largest prison – from the outside world.

Gaza’s continued isolation has devastated its economy, impoverished its population and left 60 percent without jobs, adequate electricity and health services.