Israel settlements: Netanyahu disdains ‘shameful’ UN vote
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says a UN call to end settlement activity on occupied land is “shameful”.
He stressed that Israel would not abide by Friday’s vote at the 15-member UN Security Council.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ spokesman said the resolution was a “big blow to Israeli policy”.
The document was passed after the US refused to veto it, breaking with long-standing American practice.
Washington has traditionally sheltered Israel from condemnatory resolutions.
The Egyptian-drafted resolution had been withdrawn after Israel asked US President-elect Donald Trump to intervene, but it was proposed again by Malaysia, New Zealand, Senegal and Venezuela.
It was adopted by 14 votes to zero, with one abstention.
The issue of Jewish settlements is one of the most contentious between Israel and the Palestinians, who see them as an obstacle to peace.
About 500,000 Jews live in about 140 settlements built since Israel’s 1967 occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The settlements are considered illegal under international law, though Israel disputes this.
Mr Netanyahu said: “Israel rejects this shameful anti-Israel resolution at the UN and will not abide by its terms.
“At a time when the Security Council does nothing to stop the slaughter of half-a-million people in Syria, it disgracefully gangs up on the one true democracy in the Middle East, Israel, and calls the Western Wall ‘occupied territory’.”
Mr Netanyahu said the administration of US President Barack Obama “not only failed to protect Israel against this gang-up at the UN, it colluded with it behind the scenes”, and added that he looked forward to working with Mr Trump.
Israel also announced its ambassadors to New Zealand and Senegal had been ordered to return for consultations and that it was cutting all aid programmes to Senegal.
Israel has no diplomatic ties with Malaysia and Venezuela.
A spokesman for Mr Abbas said: “The Security Council resolution is a big blow to Israeli policy, a unanimous international condemnation of settlements and a strong support for the two-state solution.”
The Palestinian ambassador to the UN, Riyad Mansour said: “The Council’s action, while long overdue, is timely, necessary and important.”
He added that settlements “constitute a major obstacle to peace, gravely diminishing the viability of the two-state solution”.
The US reaction
The US envoy to the UN, Samantha Power, said the resolution reflected the “facts on the ground” that settlement growth had been accelerating.
“The settlement problem has gotten so much worse that it is threatening the two-state solution,” she said.
She criticised Mr Netanyahu’s support for settlement expansion, saying: “One cannot simultaneously champion expanding settlements and champion a two-state solution that would end the conflict.”
However, she said the US had not voted in favour of the resolution because it was “too narrowly focused” on settlements.
She added that even if all settlements were dismantled, both sides would still have to acknowledge “uncomfortable truths” and make “difficult choices” to reach peace.
Meanwhile, Mr Trump, who will be inaugurated on 20 January, tweeted after the vote: “As to the UN, things will be different after Jan. 20th.”
On Thursday, Mr Trump had urged the Council to defeat the motion.
“Peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians will only come through direct negotiations between the parties, and not through the imposition of terms by the United Nations,” he said.
“This puts Israel in a very poor negotiating position and is extremely unfair to all Israelis.”
Source: BBC
