The General Assembly stated in a declaration that the first decision regarding the occupied Palestinian territories “was adopted with a vote of 151 in favor, 11 against, and 11 abstentions.” The statement added that the General Assembly “emphasized the urgent need for collective efforts to launch credible negotiations on all final status issues in the Middle East peace process and called for an international conference to be held in Moscow at an appropriate time as stipulated by Security Council Resolution 1850 (2008) to advance a just, lasting, and comprehensive peaceful settlement.” It urged “both parties to act responsibly, swiftly reverse negative trends, and create the necessary conditions for a credible political horizon and to push peace efforts forward.” The statement noted that the United Nations demanded Israel: It explained that the second decision “was adopted with a recorded vote of 123 in favor, 7 against,” indicating that “the General Assembly affirmed that Israel’s decision on December 14, 1981, to impose its laws, jurisdiction, and administration on the occupied Syrian Golan is null and void and called for its revocation. It also called on Israel to resume talks on the Syrian and Lebanese tracks and to respect the commitments and agreements previously reached. It demanded Israel withdraw from the occupied Syrian Golan to the line of June 4, 1967.” Israel has occupied the West Bank since the June 1967 war and exercises full administrative control over most of the territories where more than two million Palestinians live. Israel began an aerial and ground military operation against Syria, launched on Sunday, December 8, 2024, hours after the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria, with Israeli vehicles penetrating the buffer zone, Quneitra, and Mount Hermon under the pretext of establishing a buffer zone between Syrian territories and the originally Israeli-occupied Syrian Golan Heights, supported by the air force conducting parallel raids on various locations in Syria. The operation, called “Arrow of Bashan” by Israel, is the first in 50 years since the ceasefire agreements on May 31, 1974, following the October War, where Israeli forces crossed the border fence and took control of new Syrian lands. The Syrian and Israeli armies signed an agreement following the October 6, 1973 war, and on the same date, the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force was formed. Under the disengagement agreement, a buffer zone was established between Syrian and Israeli forces in the Golan, extending about 80 kilometers in length and varying in width from half a kilometer to 10 kilometers. The eastern boundary of the buffer zone is known as the “Bravo Line” and the western boundary as the “Alpha Line,” with two equally sized areas on either side in terms of the size and type of weapons of the Syrian and Israeli forces. Last September, Netanyahu said that negotiations on reaching a security agreement with Syria were progressing but still far from being achieved, according to his expression. In contrast, transitional Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa stated in an interview with the American newspaper “The Washington Post” that the Israeli incursion into Syria does not stem from its security concerns but from its expansionist ambitions, noting that Damascus is engaged in direct negotiations with Tel Aviv, but the latter must withdraw to the borders of December 8 before progress can be made in this file.
