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GENEVA —The U.N. Human Rights Council overwhelmingly adopted a resolution Friday calling for Israel to be held accountable for possible war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza. Only six countries voted against the resolution, which passed with 28 votes in favor and 13 abstentions.
The council chamber erupted in a wild burst of applause when the results of the vote were announced to the glee of the many countries that supported the resolution and to the dismay of those that did not.
"The Human Rights Council has just adopted a resolution supposedly addressing accountability and justice," Meirav Eilon Shahar, Israeli ambassador to the U.N., told reporters after the vote.
The ambassador told journalists that the council's adoption of the resolution clearly shows that "Israelis do not matter, the murder of Jews does not matter, the hostages do not matter, the rape of Israeli women does not matter."
"Where is the accountability for the Israeli victims of Palestinian terrorism?" she asked.
The resolution calls upon all states "to cease the sale, transfer and diversion of arms, munitions and other military equipment to Israel." It demands that Israel immediately lift its blockade on the Gaza Strip and all other forms of collective punishment, and "calls for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza."
Pakistan's ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva, Bilal Ahmad, introduced the draft resolution on behalf of the OIC, the Organization of the Islamic Cooperation. He said the resolution responds to "egregious human rights violations" in the occupied Palestinian territories, especially the Gaza Strip, and to "Israel's disregard for international law."
"The preamble reflects this council's grave concern at war crimes and crimes against humanity in the [occupied Palestinian territories] and the [International Court of Justice's] determination that the Palestinian people under Israeli occupation face the plausible risk of genocide," he said.
In an emotional address to the council before the vote, Ibrahim Khraish, the Palestinian ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva, decried the "humanitarian disaster" in Gaza.
"We need you all to wake up and stop this genocide ... televised live across the world, killing thousands of innocent people. This must be stopped," he said.
The U.S. ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva, Michele Taylor, agreed that "far too many civilians have been killed" in the Gaza conflict.
"The protection of all civilian life is both a moral and strategic imperative and Israel has not done enough to mitigate civilian harm. We continue to express grave concern at the unprecedented loss of life and the lack of adequate humanitarian assistance that has placed men, women, and children in Gaza on the brink of widespread starvation," she said.
Despite this critical review of Israel's conduct of the war, Taylor said the U.S. could not vote for the resolution because it contained too many "problematic elements."
"For example, there is no specific condemnation of Hamas for perpetrating the horrific October 7 attacks, neither is there any reference to the terrorist nature of those actions. ... The text makes no distinction between hostages who were brutally abducted by a terrorist organization that heeds no international law ... and are likely experiencing repeated sexual violence, and detainees whose fate is regulated and governed by legal processes. Let me be clear: these groups are not equivalent," she said.
More than a dozen countries took the floor in vocal support of the resolution. Besides the U.S., Argentina, Bulgaria, Germany, Malawi and Paraguay voted against the measure. France abstained.
The Israel ambassador expressed her disappointment at the lack of support from European countries, naming Belgium, Luxembourg and Finland as countries that supported "a resolution that did not condemn Hamas."
"This council has long abandoned the Israeli people and long defended Hamas," said Ambassador Shahar. "It has become a shield for terrorists. It has turned a blind eye to any acts of violence against Israelis and Jews.
"This resolution is a stain on the Human Rights Council and on the United Nations as a whole," she said.