Rebuffing Israel, US allows censure over settlements

But US envoy to UN criticises countries for treating Israel unfairly at world body

DEFYING PRESSURE from President-elect Donald Trump and lobbying by Israel, the Obama administration Friday allowed the UN Security Council to adopt a resolution that condemned Israeli settlement construction. The abstention on the vote broke a longstanding US policy of shielding Israel from United Nations actions that labelled the settlements as illegal. The administration’s decision not to veto the measure this time reflected its accumulated frustration over the accelerated growth of Israeli settlements.

While the resolution is not expected to have any practical impact on the ground, it is regarded as a major rebuff to Israel, one that could increase its isolation over the paralysed peace process with Israel’s Palestinian neighbours, who have sought to establish their own state on territory held by Israel.

Applause broke out in the 15-member Security Council’s chambers after the vote on the measure, which passed 14-0, with the US ambassador, Samantha Power, raising her hand as the lone abstention. Israel’s ambassador, Danny Danon, denounced the measure, and castigated the council members who had approved it. “Would you ban the French from building in Paris?” he told them.

The resolution describes the settlement building as a “major obstacle” to peace and demands that Israel stop the construction, which most of the world regards as illegal. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, who had scrambled in recent days to stop the measure from coming to a vote, issued a denunciation afterward.

“Israel rejects this shameful anti-israel resolution at the UN and will not abide by its terms,” Netanyahu said in a statement. “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’.”

Netanyahu immediately retaliated against two of the countries that sponsored the resolution. He ordered Israel’s ambassadors to New Zealand and Senegal to return home for consultations, cancelled a planned visit to Israel next month by Senegal’s foreign minister and cut off all aid programs to Senegal.

Thevotecameadayaftertrumppersonally intervened to keep the measure, which had been originally proposed by Egypt, from coming up for a vote Thursday, as scheduled. Trump’s aides said he had spoken to Netanyahu. Both men also spoke to the Egyptianpresident,abdel-fattahel-sissi.egypt postponedthevoteunderwhatthatcountry’s UN ambassador called intense pressure.

But in a show of mounting exasperation, four other countries on the Security Council — Malaysia, New Zealand, Senegal and Venezuela — all of them relatively powerless temporary members with rotating 2-year seats, snatched the resolution away from Egypt and put it up for a vote Friday.

The Obama administration has criticised Israel’s settlement building, describing it as an impediment to a two-state solution in the Israeli-palestinian conflict that has long been the official US position, regardless of the party in power. According to a report issued in July and endorsed by the United States, at least 570,000 Israelis live in the West Bank and in East Jerusalem.

Trump’s comments on the resolution amounted to his most direct intervention on US foreign policy during his transition to power. Minutes after the Security Council vote was announced, Trump made his anger known in a Twitter posting, saying: “As to the U.N., things will be different after Jan. 20th.”

Power, the US ambassador, portrayed the abstention as consistent with American disapproval of settlement-building, but she also criticised countries at the United Nations for treating Israel unfairly. She said the United States remained committed to its “steadfast support” for Israel and reminded the council that Israel received an enormous amount of US military aid. NYT

President-elect Donald Trump made his anger on the UN resolution known in a Twitter posting, saying ‘As to the U.N., things will be different after Jan. 20th’

AP A worshipper kisses the ground near the silver star which marks the place where Jesus Christ is believed to have been born, in the Grotto at the Church of the Nativity, in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, on Saturday.