WASHINGTON VETOES UN JERUSALEM RESOLUTION AMID MOUNTING FURY
▶ Palestinians plan to go to UN general assembly in struggle against Trump’s declaration of capital of Israel
The US has vetoed a UN security council resolution rejecting Washington’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, forcing Palestinian representatives to announce they would seek the general assembly’s support.
The council voted yesterday on a motion that rejected US president Donald Trump’s de- cision to recognise the city for Israel.
France and Britain, traditional allies of the US, backed the resolution in the vote called by Egypt.
US ambassador Nikki Haley said the US failure to use its veto on a resolution on Jewish settlement-building a year ago had put Israeli-Palestinian peace “further out of reach”.
“We will not make that mistake again,” Ms Haley said.
Palestinian foreign minister Riyad Al Maliki said the general assembly could make its views known if the security council was stymied.
“We will show her their position is isolated and rejected internationally,” Mr Al Maliki said.
The draft resolution named no country, but expressed “deep regret at recent decisions concerning the status of Jerusalem”.
It stressed “Jerusalem is a final status issue to be resolved through negotiations”.
“Any decisions and actions that purport to have altered the character, status or demographic composition” of Jerusalem “have no legal effect, are null and void and must be rescinded”.
Israel seized control of the eastern part of the city in the 1967 Middle East war, in a move not recognised by the international community, and considers the whole of Jerusalem to be its undivided capital.
The Palestinians view the east as the capital of their future state and oppose any measures that could infringe on that prospect.
The general assembly is expected to hold a plenary session today, including a discussion on the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination.
The five permanent members of the security council have the power to veto, but there are no vetoes at the assembly.
Breaking with international consensus, Mr Trump on December 6 recognised Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and said
he would move the US embassy there from Tel Aviv, sparking protests and condemnation.
US vice president Mike Pence will visit Jerusalem tomorrow, wading into the crisis over one of the most controversial issues in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas has scrapped a meeting with Mr Pence in protest at the Jerusalem announcement, and will instead fly to Saudi Arabia to meet King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Mr Abbas has sought to unify the Muslim world in opposition to Mr Trump’s Jerusalem move.
Last night, the Palestinian cabinet met for the first time since the announcement, at a pivotal moment in the crisis.
The Palestinians can use the scope of Resolution 377A – known as the Uniting for Peace – to ensure the general assembly has its say on the decision.
It was passed in 1950 and used to authorise the sending of US troops to fight in the Korean War.
Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian permanent observer at the UN, said the authority resorted to the resolution in the 1990s after Israel began building a settlement on Jabal Abut Ghnaim, a hilltop on occupied West Bank land south of Jerusalem, but left that session in suspension.
They can seek a resumption of the session, Mr Mansour said.
“If the resolution is vetoed, the Palestinian delegation can send a letter to the UN secretary general and ask him to resume the emergency session,” he said.
Israel’s UN ambassador, Danny Danon, called before the vote to dismiss the meeting.
Hours before the New York showdown, Israeli warplanes targeted a Hamas centre in the northern Gaza Strip early yesterday after claiming that two rockets fired from the Palestinian enclave struck southern Israel.
“In response to the rockets launched towards southern Israel, Israeli air force aircraft targeted a Hamas training compound in the northern Gaza Strip,” the military said.
A Palestinian security source said there were no injuries.
On Sunday night, two rockets fired from Gaza hit southern Israel, one damaging a home in a border town.
Another flew short of its target, falling inside the Gaza boundary.