UN General Assembly Calls for Israeli Withdrawal from Occupied Golan Heights

The United Nations General Assembly has passed a resolution declaring Israel's occupation and annexation of Syria's Golan Heights illegal. The measure, adopted early Wednesday, urges Israel to withdraw from the territory to the boundary line of June 4, 1967. Egypt submitted the draft resolution, which received 123 votes in favor. Eleven nations voted against it, and 54 member states abstained from the vote. The Golan Heights is a strategic plateau that Israel captured from Syria during the 1967 Middle East war. Israel later annexed the territory in 1981, a move not recognized by the international community. The annual resolution reaffirms the UN's longstanding position on the status of the Golan. It emphasizes that all changes imposed by Israel to the territory's legal and physical character are invalid under international law.