United Nations, Nov 29 (IANS): India has backed a UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution demanding that Israel withdraw from the occupied Golan Heights, a territory the Jewish nation captured from Syria in the Six-Day War of 1967r.

India was among the 91 countries that voted on Tuesday for the resolution that declared Israel’s occupation of the territory a “stumbling block" to a “just, comprehensive and lasting peace in the region”.

New Delhi’s vote for the resolution reaffirmed its support for the Arab cause in the conflicts involving Israel, after having abstained -- likely for the time -- on a resolution backed by Palestine.

It cited its failure to condemn the massacre inflicted on Israel by Hamas on October 7 as the reason for abstaining.

The Golan Heights resolution on Tuesday co-sponsored by Bangladesh, demanded that “Israel withdraw from all the occupied Syrian Golan to the line of 4 June 1967” before the start of the Six-Day War during which Israel captured the Golan Heights as well as Gaza.

It rejected Israel’s de facto annexation of the Golan Heights and the imposition of its laws.

The members of the European Union, several other European countries and Japan were among the nations that abstained.

The US and its allies, Britain, Australia, Canada and Israel, as well as a few Pacific Island states, voted against it.

(Arul Louis can be contacted at arul.l@ians.in and followed at @arulouis)