A vote at the United Nations General Assembly has further strained relations between Israel and Ukraine.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry on Sunday summoned the Ukrainian ambassador over his country’s vote against Israel at the UN General Assembly Fourth Committee on Friday on a resolution request titled “Israeli practices and settlement activities affecting the rights of the Palestinian people and other Arabs of the occupied territories.”
The resolution requests that The Hague-based International Court of Justice (ICJ) “render urgently an advisory opinion” on Israel’s “prolonged occupation, settlement and annexation of Palestinian territory.”
The resolution will head to the General Assembly plenary for official approval, likely next month.
The vote was 98 countries in favor of the resolution, with 17 countries opposed and 52 abstentions.
Israeli officials are infuriated over Ukraine’s vote in favor of the resolution request; meanwhile, Palestinians hailed the outcome.
Arkady Mil-Man, head of Russian program at the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University and Israel’s former ambassador to Russia and Azerbaijan, told The Media Line that relations between Israel and Ukraine are “complicated,” as a result of Russia’s invasion of its neighbor.
“Israel is in a predicament, as it’s faced with a difficult decision to make, it has some sensitive issues, and they depend on Russian policy in Syria and toward Iran.”
“On the other hand, I can understand because they want some assistance against Russia in the UN, and they think the Muslim and Arab countries will vote for Ukraine against Russia,” but that won’t happen, according to Mil-Man.
This position is not farsighted; it’s not forward-looking. In some ways it’s very conservative of Ukrainian diplomats and, in my opinion, they made a mistake. They could have abstained and participated in the voting.
Mil-Man explains that Kyiv’s position in support of the resolution was influenced by decades of being part of the Soviet Union, which regularly voted in favor of the Palestinians against Israel.
“This position is not farsighted; it’s not forward-looking. In some ways it’s very conservative of Ukrainian diplomats and, in my opinion, they made a mistake. They could have abstained and participated in the voting,” he said.
Among the nations that opposed the text were the United States, Canada, Israel, Australia, Austria, the Czech Republic, Italy, Germany, several Pacific Island nations and the United States.
Many European countries abstained.
Nations voting in favor of the resolution included Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Ukraine, Ireland, Poland and the United Arab Emirates.
Professor Zeev Hanin of the department of political studies at Bar-Ilan University told The Media Line that Israel’s ties with Ukraine are influenced by a decision that was made under the government of former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.
Forming a strategic partnership with Ukraine was discussed in Israel “sometime in the middle of the last decade,” and that “ties between Israel and Ukraine did not develop in the same way as with Azerbaijan for example.”
“As a result of these discussions something was done in the military sphere; however, Ukraine leadership decided to take another line in favor of strategic partnership with Turkey rather than with Israel,” according to Hanin.
At the same time, the Ukrainians are angry with Israel for failing to provide military weapons to help in its war against Russia.
Since the Russian invasion eight months ago, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been vocal in his criticism of Israel.
Zelenskyy repeatedly has urged Israel to supply his army with advanced Israeli weapons. However, Israel only offered humanitarian support, sending helmets and flak jackets to civil emergency services personnel and establishing a field hospital.
After the beginning of the war there was an “over-expectation” from Ukraine toward Israel “which was not grounded,” Hanin said.
He adds that every country is more interested in protecting its own interests.
“Ukraine has no moral, diplomatic or legal ground to demand from Israel what they demand, and as a result they made offensive statements which in Israel we are not happy about,” Hanin said.
“They are firing on their own legs,” he concluded.
Oleksii Arestovych, an aide to Zelenskyy, said Sunday that Ukraine’s recent vote in favor of a UN resolution against Israel was “a grave mistake.”
In an online livestream, the close adviser to the Ukrainian premier criticized his country’s decision, calling the position of Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry “illogical and unacceptable.”
“We’re teaming up with Russia and Iran, who are attacking us, and distancing ourselves from Israel – which we want as an ally,” Arestovych said.
Both Israel and Ukraine belong to the same camp of liberal democratic values, we are in some kind of misunderstanding and emotional time, but it will be OK
Many Israeli analysts say Israel’s reluctance to supply Ukraine with weapons stems from its own security concerns closer to home. They agree that Israel does not want to provoke Russia, which is deeply involved in neighboring Syria.
Mil-Man says Israel has a strategic and a military point of view that needs to coordinate with Russia on several issues.
“Iranian delivery of weapons to Hizbullah, and its presence in Syria, this is a very important issue to us because it’s connected to our existence as a country and there’s a problem with possible threats from Iran and Hizbullah inside Syria,” he said.
Israeli missiles struck a major air base in Syria’s Homs province on Sunday, killing two soldiers and wounding three others, the Syrian military said via state news agency SANA.
Military sources said the air base, at Shayrat, was recently used by Iran’s air force.
But despite the tension Mil-Man says, this will not lead to a deterioration in the relationship.
“I don’t think that would be the case; both Israel and Ukraine belong to the same camp of liberal democratic values, we are in some kind of misunderstanding and emotional time, but it will be OK,” said Mil-Man.