Israel said to skip General Assembly vote on Syria, on Netanyahu’s orders

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu instructed the Israeli UN mission in New York to skip a vote last week at the General Assembly on a resolution that would have allowed for the establishment of a mechanism to investigate allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Syria.

According to a report in the Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth, this directive came amid heavy diplomatic pressure from Russia, which is deeply involved in the ongoing Syrian civil war and which did not want its military implicated in any international probes.

Western diplomats told the paper they were surprised by Israel’s absence at the General Assembly on resolution Resolution A/71/L.48, which passed with 105 votes nonetheless. One official who was involved in the drafting of the resolution told the paper that he was sure the whole world, except for Russia and Iran, would unite behind the decision, including Israel.

According to the report, Netanyahu, who also serves as Israeli foreign minister, ordered that Israel skip the vote in contradiction to Foreign Ministry staff recommendations that Israel support it.

Unnamed Israeli officials who spoke to Haaretz confirmed the events, adding that the General Assembly vote was unusual in that it sought to exploit the UN Charter to circumvent the Security Council, where Russia has consistently used its veto power to nix resolutions on Syria, and go straight to the GA for a binding resolution. One official told the paper that “this expansion of authority of the General Assembly did not serve Israeli interests,” amid fears the move could possibly be used against Israel in the future.

A UN official told Yediot that Israel’s decision was the result of “a cynical deal” between Jerusalem and Moscow.

“In the end you got nothing for it because two days later, the Russians screwed Israel over on the settlements resolution,” the official said according to a translation of the Yediot report on Ynet’s English website.

Indeed, on Friday, Russia, along with 13 other states, voted in favor of a Security Council resolution denouncing Israeli settlements. The decision, which infuriated Israel, was allowed to pass after the US decided to depart from policy and abstain instead of veto the resolution.

According to a partial account by Haaretz of some behind-the-scenes events before the anti-settlements vote, Netanyahu sought to cash in on Israel’s acquiescence on the Syrian resolution at the General Assembly by pressuring Russia to delay the vote on UNSC Resolution 2334.

Netanyahu called Russian President Vladimir Putin hours before the vote Friday, according to Haaretz, to persuade him to postpone. It seems Putin answered the call when, less than an hour before the 15-member council was set to cast votes, Russian Ambassador to the United Nations Vitaly Churkin asked for closed consultations to request a delay on the vote until after the Christmas holiday.

Churkin, according to Western diplomats who spoke to Haaretz, said Russia was not satisfied with the text, which slammed Israeli settlement building and expansion in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and with the timing of the vote — just weeks before a new US administration is set to take power.

But Churkin was rebuffed and the vote passed with the 14 votes in favor, including Russia’s, and the US abstention.

In response to the news of Netanyahu’s order on the Syria resolution, a noted Israeli scholar who penned the IDF’s code of ethics said he felt “shame and sadness.”

“Israel was supposed to be at the forefront of those demanding the world end its silence on this anti-moral behavior [in Syria],” Asa Kasher wrote on Facebook Tuesday, adding that Israel should have been a “moral example” against “mass atrocities committed worldwide, regardless of who is committing them or who its friends are.”

Yair Lapid of the Yesh Atid party, which sits in the opposition, recalled his late father, a Holocaust survivor, when responding to the news that Israel skipped the vote, saying he would not have forgiven Israel’s silence.

“Dad always blamed the world for its silence. For not doing a thing while he was in the ghetto and his father — my grandfather — died in the gas chambers. If he would have heard that we remained silent in this moment, he would have never forgiven us,” Lapid wrote on social media.