25 Dec 2021; MEMO: A majority of 125 countries in the UN General Assembly backed on Thursday an unprecedented open-ended war crimes probe against Israel, news agencies reported.
The probe was initially approved in May by UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in the aftermath of the Israeli aggression on Gaza that took place in May 2021.
The UNGA vote came after Israel asked to amend the UNHRC budget resolution so that the money for the probe be excluded from the overall UNHRC budget.
Only 8 countries voted in favour of the resolution, including Israel and the US, while 34 countries abstained.
Palestine's Permanent Ambassador to the UN, Riyad Mansour, commended the vote and all the countries that rejected Israel's proposal.
He thanked the UNGA for approving all budgets of the programmes relating to the Palestinian cause, including his request to increase funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).
The US envoy to the UN, who voted against the probe, said: "The US will continue to oppose this [probe] and to look for opportunities in Geneva to revisit its mandate, which unfortunately was passed when the US did not have a seat on the UNHRC."
