The U.N. has voted to declare Israel’s settlements illegal under international law
WASHINGTON — The U.S. bucked its own recent history and abstained from voting on a U.N. Security Council resolution critical of Israel’s settlements in the West Bank that had drawn bipartisan criticism and accusations from Tel Aviv that Washington was abandoning its decadeslong support of the country.
The resolution, which could have been vetoed by the U.S., 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. Samantha Power, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, defended the move to abstain, saying “one cannot champion” settlements and a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at the same time.
“The settlement problem has gotten so much worse,” Power said after the vote, which had been delayed from Thursday. She added that “our vote today does not diminish” the country’s “steadfast” commitment to Israel.
The decision to abstain highlighted the increasingly tenuous ties between the Obama administration and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government. A senior Israeli official, who asked not to be identified because he wasn’t authorized to discuss the issue publicly, accused the U.S. of secretly drafting the resolution in conjunction with the Palestinian Authority. The Obama administration rejected that accusation.
House Speaker Paul Ryan called the abstention “shameful” in a statement issued after the vote. Ryan, President-elect Donald Trump and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer had all called on the Obama administration to veto the resolution before the vote.
“Today’s vote is a blow to peace that sets a dangerous precedent for further diplomatic efforts to isolate and demonize Israel,” Ryan said. “Our unified Republican government will work to reverse the damage done by this administration, and rebuild our alliance with Israel.”
Israeli Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz told Channel 2 TV afterward that the U.N. vote was “not anti-settlement, it’s anti-Israel.”
“Today’s passage of an illconceived resolution on Israeli settlements marks another shameful chapter in the bizarre anti-Israel history of the United Nations,” Sen. John McCain, an Arizona Republican, said in a statement. “The abstention of the United States has made us complicit in this outrageous attack, and marks a troubling departure from our nation’s long, bipartisan history of defending our ally Israel in the United Nations.”
Trump issued a statement Thursday saying the resolution “puts Israel in a very poor negotiating position and is extremely unfair to all Israelis.”
The incoming U.S. president has taken a very public stance on U.S.-Israel ties, vowing to move the U.S. embassy in Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, a move Palestinians say would effectively end the peace process. He’s also nominated David Friedman, a staunch supporter of settlements who opposes a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian dispute, as his ambassador to Israel.