Israel attacks US for abstention from West Bank settlement vote

Israel has launched a scathing attack on the outgoing administration of president Barack Obama after the United States abstained from voting in a UN Security Council resolution demanding Israel halt all settlement activity in the West Bank and east Jerusalem.

The abstention marks a reversal of US practice to protect Israel from UN action.

The resolution was put forward at the 15-member council for a vote on Friday by New Zealand, Malaysia, Venezuela and Senegal a day after Egypt withdrew it under pressure from Israel and US president-elect Donald Trump.

Israel and Mr Trump had called on the United States to veto the measure. It was adopted with 14 votes in favour, to a round of applause. It is the first resolution the Security Council has adopted on Israel and the Palestinians in nearly eight years.

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“President Obama and secretary Kerry are behind this shameful move against Israel at the UN,” an Israeli official said.

“The US administration secretly cooked up with the Palestinians an extreme anti-Israeli resolution behind Israel’s back which would be a tail wind for terror and boycotts,” he said, calling it “an abandonment of Israel which breaks decades of US policy of protecting Israel at the UN”.

A US official denied Israeli claims that Washington was involved in crafting the UN resolution. “Contrary to some claims, the administration was not involved in formulating the resolution nor have we promoted it.”

Israel considered the Obama administration’s planned abstention as an attempt to tie the hands of the incoming administration and, in an unprecedented move, on Thursday contacted the US president-elect Donald Trump’s transition team to help thwart the Egyptian draft, which called for Israel to halt all settlement activity in the West Bank and east Jerusalem.

The resolution said that settlement construction “has no legal validity [and] constitutes a flagrant violation under international law and a major obstacle to the achievement of the two-state solution and a just, lasting and comprehensive peace”.

Short-lived diplomatic victory

Israeli officials expressed satisfaction that co-ordination with Mr Trump helped to persuade Egypt to withdraw its resolution, expressing the hope that the short-lived diplomatic victory was a sign of things to come after Mr Trump assumes the presidency.

The US has traditionally vetoed resolutions critical of Israel at the UN but relations between outgoing US president Barack Obama and Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu have been acrimonious.

Mr Trump’s position on settlements is radically different from that of the outgoing administration and he has already appointed David Friedman, a veteran supporter of settlements, as the new US ambassador to Israel. After being contacted by the prime minister’s office in Jerusalem, Mr Trump issued a statement saying the resolution should be vetoed.

“Peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians will only come through direct negotiations and not through the imposition of terms by the United Nations. This puts Israel in a very poor negotiating position and is extremely unfair to all Israelis.”

Egyptian president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi discussed the issue in a phone call with Mr Trump, after Egypt, which is heavily reliant on US aid, withdrew the resolution. In a statement, it said the two men had agreed on “the importance of giving a chance for the new American administration to deal in a comprehensive way with the different aspects of the Palestinian issue”.

Additional reporting from Reuters