New York: The UN Security Council has approved a resolution demanding Israel cease Jewish settlement activity on Palestinian territory in a unanimous vote that passed when the United States abstained in the wake of meddling by President-elect Donald Trump and Egypt.
The resolution declared Israeli settlements illegal under international law and demanded that the country cease construction in the West Bank and other territories captured in the 1967 Middle East war. It said the settlements, including those in East Jerusalem, have “no legal validity”. It said they threaten the viability of the two-state solution, and it urged Israelis and Palestinians to return to negotiations that lead to two independent nations.
The United States’ abstained from the vote instead of using its veto as it has reliably done in the past. It was a rare rebuke to Israel, and reflected mounting frustration in President Barack Obama’s administration over settlement growth that the US considers an obstacle to peace. With President Obama’s time in office due to end in barely a month, his decision not to veto was a symbolic statement of that displeasure.
The decision highlighted the increasingly tenuous ties between the Obama administration and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government. A senior Israeli official, who asked not to be identified, accused the US of secretly drafting the resolution in conjunction with the Palestinian Authority. The Obama administration rejected that accusation.
Read the full article by Carol Morello at The Sydney Morning Herald.