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UNITED NATIONS — Defying extraordinary pressure from President-elect Donald J. …
Applause After U.N. Vote to Condemn Israeli Settlements
After the United States chose to
abstain from the vote, the United Nations Security Council passed a
resolution demanding that Israel end settlement construction in occupied
Palestinian territory. Applause erupted in the room after the draft
resolution was passed.
By REUTERS on Publish Date December 23, 2016.
Photo by Justin Lane/European Pressphoto Agency.
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UNITED NATIONS — Defying extraordinary pressure from President-elect Donald J. Trump and furious lobbying by Israel, the Obama administration on Friday allowed the United Nations Security Council to adopt a resolution that condemned Israeli settlement construction.
The
administration’s decision not to veto the measure reflected its
accumulated frustration over Israeli settlements. The American
abstention on the vote also broke a longstanding policy of shielding
Israel from action at the United Nations that described the settlements
as illegal.
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 paralyzed peace process with Israel’s Palestinian neighbors, 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 to 0, with the United States 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.
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“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 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 blistering denunciation afterward.
“Israel
rejects this shameful anti-Israel resolution at the U.N. and will not
abide by its terms,” Mr. 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.’ ”
Mr.
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, canceled a planned visit
to Israel next month by Senegal’s foreign minister and cut off all aid
programs to Senegal.
The vote came a day after Mr. Trump personally intervened
to keep the measure, which had been originally proposed by Egypt, from
coming up for a vote on Thursday, as scheduled. Mr. Trump’s aides said
he had spoken to Mr. Netanyahu. Both men also spoke to the Egyptian
president, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. Egypt postponed the vote under what
that country’s United Nations 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 two-year
seats, snatched the resolution away from Egypt and put it up for a vote
Friday.
Document: U.N. Security Council Draft Resolution on the Middle East Peace Process
The
Obama administration has been highly critical of 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 United
States position, regardless of the party in power.
Mr.
Trump, who had urged the administration to veto the resolution, has
made clear that he will take a far more sympathetic approach to Israel
when his administration assumes office on Jan. 20.
Mr.
Trump’s comments on the resolution amounted to his most direct
intervention on United States foreign policy during his transition to
power. Minutes after the Security Council vote was announced, Mr. Trump
made his anger known in a Twitter posting, saying: “As to the U.N., things will be different after Jan. 20th.”
A
range of senators and congressmen from both parties also denounced the
resolution, a reflection of the deep loyalty to Israel shared by
Democrats and Republicans. Senator Chuck Schumer of New York said, “It
is extremely frustrating, disappointing and confounding that the
administration has failed to veto this resolution.”
Senator
Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who oversees a subcommittee that
oversees United Nations funding by the United States, threatened to take steps that could “suspend or significantly reduce” that financing.
Reaction
to the resolution also illustrated fissures among American Jews
regarding Israeli policy. Some, like the World Jewish Congress and American Jewish Committee,
called the resolution a one-sided measure that would not help the peace
process. Ronald S. Lauder, president of the World Jewish Congress, said
in a statement:
“It is also disconcerting and unfortunate that the United States,
Israel’s greatest ally, chose to abstain rather than veto this
counterproductive text.”
Other
groups that have grown increasingly critical of the Israeli
government’s approach to the peace process applauded the resolution and
the Obama administration’s decision not to block it.
J Street, a Washington-based organization that advocates a two-state solution, said
the resolution “conveys the overwhelming support of the international
community, including Israel’s closest friends and allies, for the
two-state solution, and their deep concern over the deteriorating status
quo between Israelis and Palestinians and the lack of meaningful
progress toward peace.”
Ms.
Power, the United States ambassador, portrayed the abstention as
consistent with the American disapproval of settlement-building, but she
also criticized 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 American military aid.
Ms. Power said the United States chose not to veto the resolution, as it had done to a similar measure under Mr. Obama in 2011,
because settlement building had accelerated so much that it had put the
two-state solution in jeopardy, and because the peace process had gone
nowhere.
“Today
the Security Council reaffirmed its established consensus that
settlements have no legal validity,” she said. “The United States has
been sending a message that settlements must stop privately and publicly
for nearly five decades.”
She
also rebuked Palestinian leaders for “too often” failing to condemn
violence against Israeli civilians. But she directed a portion of her
remarks to Mr. Netanyahu, whose relations with the Obama administration
have never been warm.
“One
cannot simultaneously champion expanding Israeli settlements and
champion a viable two-state solution that would end the conflict,” she
said, arguing that the settlements have undermined Israel’s security.
Israel’s
ambassador, Mr. Danon, who had exhorted the American delegation to
block the measure, expressed his anger in a statement that looked
forward to a change in policy under Mr. Trump.
“It
was to be expected that Israel’s greatest ally would act in accordance
with the values that we share and that they would have vetoed this
disgraceful resolution,” he said.
Riyad
Mansour, the Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations, welcomed the
resolution’s adoption but tempered his approval with a warning. “In
reality, today’s action may be too little too late,” he said. “After
years of allowing the law to be trampled and the situation to spiral
downward, today’s resolution may rightly be seen as a last attempt to
preserve the two-state solution and revive the path for peace.”
The
resolution condemned Israeli housing construction in East Jerusalem and
the occupied West Bank as a “flagrant violation under international
law” that was “dangerously imperiling the viability” of a future peace
settlement establishing a Palestinian state.
The
resolution also included a nod to Israel and its backers by condemning
“all acts of violence against civilians, including acts of terror, as
well as all acts of provocation, incitement and destruction.” That
language is diplomatic scolding aimed at Palestinian leaders, whom
Israel accuses of encouraging attacks on Israeli civilians.
Hamas,
the Palestinian group that controls the Gaza Strip and is deemed a
terrorist organization by the United States and Israel, expressed
appreciation to the Security Council. “We praise the countries that
voted for the resolution,” said Hazem Kassem, a spokesman for the group.
“We emphasize the need to turn such a resolution into action, not only
to halt settlements but to eradicate Israel’s occupation in all its
forms.”
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