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U.N. General Assembly Adopts Nine Resolutions Condemning Israel

The United Nations General Assembly adopted nine resolutions on the topics of Palestinian rights and the Golan Heights.

The resolutions adopted Tuesday criticized Israel for “the continuing systematic violation of the human rights of the Palestinian people,” and focused on “the extremely difficult socioeconomic conditions being faced by the Palestine refugees” in the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem. One resolution condemned Israel for continuing to hold the Golan Heights, and demanded Israel to return the land to Syria.

“It’s astonishing,” Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, said Tuesday. “At a time when the Syrian regime is massacring its own people, how can the U.N. call for more people to be subject to Assad’s rule? The timing of today’s text is morally galling and logically absurd.”

By the end of this week, the current 2012 UN General Assembly session is set to adopt 22 country-specific resolutions on Israel – and only four on the rest of the world combined, one each for Syria, Iran, North Korea and Burma, according to UN Watch.

“The Middle East peace process is in a deep freeze,” U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Tuesday at his end-of-year press conference at the United Nations Headquarters.

The General Assembly met as Israel announced that it would approve plans for more housing construction in eastern Jerusalem.

“I call on Israel to refrain from continuing on this dangerous path, which will undermine the prospects for a resumption of dialogue and a peaceful future for Palestinians and Israelis alike,” Ban said. “Let us get the peace process back on track before it is too late.”

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