Israel said it summoned Ukraine’s ambassador for reprimand on Tuesday after Kyiv voted in favor of a resolution to open an international investigation into Israel’s long-running occupation of the West Bank, Reuters reported.

Flags of Israel and UkrainePhoto: DreamsTime / Liskonogaleksey

The resolution, approved last week at UN headquarters in New York, calls on the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to “urgently” intervene in Israel’s “prolonged occupation, colonization and annexation of Palestinian territory,” which it says violates the Palestinians’ right to self-determination

Israel “expressed its displeasure” with Ukraine’s decision to vote for the resolution in a conversation with Ambassador Yevhen Korniychuk, the Israeli Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.

“It was explained to the ambassador that such behavior is not friendly,” the document says.

In a message about the meeting published on Facebook, the Embassy of Ukraine in Israel wrote: “The ambassador expressed disappointment with the position of Israel, whose representative abstained during the vote in the UN General Assembly on the payment of Russian compensation to Ukraine. “.

While the Israeli statement claimed the ambassador was “summoned”, Ukraine said the meeting was pre-arranged and not a summons.

Israel seized the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem – territories the Palestinians want to establish a state – during the 1967 Middle East war. US-backed negotiations reached a dead end in 2014.

The resolution was adopted by the UN Committee on Decolonization after a vote in which 98 countries voted for, 17 against, and 52 abstained. At a committee meeting on Thursday, the deputy US representative to the UN, who voted against the resolution, said the ICJ’s advisory opinion was “counterproductive and will only distract the parties from the goal we all share of agreeing on a two-state solution.” “.

The last time the International Court of Justice ruled on the conflict was in 2004, when it found Israel’s separation barrier illegal. Israel denies this.

(article photo: ©Liskonogaleksey|Dreamstime.com)