Cameroon, alongside 42 other nations, abstained from a United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) resolution on Wednesday demanding an end to decades of Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories.
The resolution demands that Israel “brings to an end without delay its unlawful presence” in Palestinian territories within 12 months.
The resolution was taken during the first UNGA meeting held under its new President, Cameroonian-born Philemon Yang, who replaced Dennis Francis last week.
The draft resolution was submitted by 30 countries as a follow-up to an advisory ruling issued by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in July.
The ICJ, which is the UN’s top court, declared Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories as unlawful and obliged UN members not to recognize the occupation.
124 UNGA members voted in favor of the resolution, which came nearly one year after Israel launched a deadly war on Gaza.
Just 14 countries voted against, among them the USA, contradicting its earlier call for a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflicts.
Canada, Germany, Italy, the UK, India and Ukraine were among countries that abstained.
In Africa, a majority of nations voted in favor. While Malawi was the lone African country that voted against, six countries abstained: Cameroon, DR Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Liberia, and South Sudan.
The resolution demands that Israel withdraw its military and dismantle illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem and end its assault on Gaza.
It acknowledges “the illegality of Israeli settlements and their associated regime, as well as all other measures aimed at altering the demographic composition, character and status of the City of Jerusalem and of the occupied Palestinian Territory as a whole…”
The UNGA resolution also obliges Israel to make reparations for damages caused to the Palestinian people and the territories since the occupation began in 1967.
