Israeli settlements come under u.n. hammer
US President Trump vows to change things at UN after he takes charge on 20 January.
The United States on Friday allowed the UN Security Council to adopt a resolution demanding an end to Israeli settlement building, defying heavy pressure from long- time ally Israel and President- elect Donald Trump for Washington to wield its veto.
A US abstention paved the way for the 15- member council to approve the resolution, with 14 votes in favour, prompting applause in the council chamber. The action by President Barack Obama’s administration follows growing US frustration over the unrelenting construction of Jewish settlements on land Palestinians want for a future independent state.
“Israel rejects this shameful anti-Israel resolution at the UN and will not abide by its terms,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has encouraged the expansion of Jewish settlements in territory captured by Israel in a 1967 war with its Arab neighbours, said in a statement.
The US action just weeks before Obama ends eight years as President broke with the long- standing American approach of shielding Israel, which receives more than $3 billion in annual US military aid, from such action. The United States, Russia, France, Britain and China have veto power on the council.
The resolution, put forward by New Zealand, Malaysia, Venezuela and Senegal a day after Egypt withdrew it under pressure from Israel and Trump, was the first adopted by the Council on Israel and the Palestinians in nearly eight years.
The US abstention was seen as a parting shot by Obama, who has had an acrimonious relationship with Netanyahu and whose efforts to forge a peace agreement based on a “twostate” solution of creating a Palestinian state existing peacefully alongside Israel have proven futile.
Obama also faced pressure from US lawmakers, fellow Democrats as well as Republicans, to veto the measure, and was hit with bipartisan criticism after the vote.
Trump, who takes office on 20 January, took the extraordinary step by a US president-elect of personally intervening in a sensitive foreign policy matter before taking office, speaking by telephone with Netanyahu and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi before Egypt, another major US aid recipient, dropped the resolution.
Trump wrote on Twitter after the vote, “As to the UN, things will be different after 20 January.”
“There is one President at a time,” Ben Rhodes, White House deputy national security adviser, said, dismissing Trump’s criticism.
Outgoing UN SecretaryGeneral Ban Ki-moon welcomed the resolution. Russian UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin called on Israel to “respect international law.”
But Netanyahu said, “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.’”
Israel for decades has pursued a policy of constructing Jewish settlements on territory captured by Israel in a 1967 war with its Arab neighbours including the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem. Most countries view Israeli settlement activity in the West Bank and East Jerusalem as illegal and an obstacle to peace. Israel disagrees.