The UN Security Council has voted in favor of a resolution demanding an immediate halt to Israel’s settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territories with the US remarkably abstaining.
The resolution was put forward at the 15-member council for a vote on Friday by New Zealand Malaysia Venezuela and Senegal one day after Egypt delayed it and then withdrew it under pressure from Israel and US president-elect Donald Trump.
The US ambassador to the UN Samantha Power raised her hand to abstain in the chamber when the resolution was put to a vote.
The resolution was adopted with 14 votes in favor and there was enthusiastic applause in the chamber following the vote.
Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu and Trump had called on the outgoing US administration to veto the measure.
“This is a day of victory for international law a victory for civilized language and negotiation and a total rejection of extremist forces in Israel” chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat told Reuters news agency yesterday.
“The international community has told the people of Israel that the way to security and peace is not going to be done through occupation … but rather through peace ending the occupation and establishing a Palestinian state to live side by side with the state of Israel on the 1967 borderline” Erekat said.
For his part US secretary of state John Kerry said in a statement following the vote that “the United States acted with one primary objective in mind to preserve the possibility of the two-state solution which every US administration for decades has agreed is the only way to achieve a just and lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians.”
The resolution angered Netanyahu who threatened to flout it. “Israel rejects this shameful anti-Israel resolution at the UN and will not abide by its terms” a statement from his office said.
As for Trump he threatened in a tweet: “As to the UN things will be different after Jan 20th.”
The US abstention was the biggest admonition in recent history to Israel enabling the Security Council to denounce its ongoing settlement construction on Palestinian lands as a “flagrant violation” of the international law.
The resolution said Israel’s settlements on Palestinian territories occupied since 1967 including east Jerusalem have “no legal validity.”
It demanded an immediate halt to “all Israeli settlement activities” affirming this “is essential for salvaging the two-state solution.”
Egyptian president Abdul-Fattah el-Sisi had backtracked on the move to condemn Israel’s settlement policy on Thursday after receiving phone calls from Netanyahu and Trump.
Trump is likely to be the staunchest supporter of Israel’s aggressive and colonialist policies in American history. He appointed a hardline pro-Israel ambassador and vowed to move his embassy from Tel Aviv to Occupied Jerusalem.
Israeli settlements are seen as a major stumbling block to peace efforts as they are built on land that has to be part of the Palestinian people’s future state.
The UN maintains that settlements are illegal and its officials have reported a surge in settlement construction over the past months.
