The United Arab Emirates has drafted a UN Security Council resolution calling on Israel to immediately cease all settlement activities, and the Palestinian mission to the UN, which has lobbied for the measure, is part of the top panel. is urging members to vote as early as Monday. three UN diplomats told The Times of Israel on Wednesday.
The resolution was drafted in response to an announcement by Israel on Sunday that it would legitimize nine checkpoints and moving forward with plans for some 10,000 new homes in the West Bank in response to a series of terrorist attacks in Jerusalem.
The draft resolution, portions of which were confirmed to The Times of Israel, demands that Israel “immediately and completely cease all settlement activities in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.”
The resolution “reaffirms that the establishment of settlements by Israel in the Palestinian territories, including East Jerusalem, since 1967 has no legal legitimacy and is a flagrant violation under international law.” Israel captured East Jerusalem in 1980 and considers it part of its undivided capital. For the West Bank, this has prevented the territory from being formally closed, but successive governments have expanded Jewish settlements beyond the Green Line and a new government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appears to be in power. Headed towards To go ahead with the merger plans.
In 2020, Netanyahu pushed for the annexation of about 30 percent of the West Bank, but later backed down under pressure from the administration of then-US President Donald Trump and after agreeing to normalize diplomatic relations with the United Arab Emirates. Canceled the plan, known as Ebrahim. agreement.
The UAE’s UN Security Council resolution – first reported by Reuters – condemns moves by Israel towards annexation, including outpost legalisation.
Two UN diplomats said the US has pushed back against a Palestinian effort to bring the resolution to a vote, as it has long opposed postponing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at the UN.
Example: Hayashi Yoshimasa, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Japan, presiding over a meeting of the Security Council at the United Nations Headquarters in New York on January 12, 2023. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)
However, it is also fiercely opposed to Israel’s latest declaration and has released several statements expressing its dismay at Jerusalem’s plans.
To avoid using its veto to block the resolution, UN diplomats said, the US urged the Palestinians and their allies in the council to consider drafting a more symbolic joint statement condemning the settlement declarations. encouraged to.
Ramallah has rejected the resolution and is pushing to put the resolution to a vote on Monday when the Security Council holds its monthly session, where members are briefed on developments in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
UN diplomats clarified that negotiations on the resolution are ongoing, and the text could well change as well as the timing for the vote.
The last time a resolution on settlements against Israel was passed by the Security Council was in December 2016. Fourteen of the body’s 15 members supported the measure, while the US, under then-US President Barack Obama, chose to abstain to allow the resolution to pass. to pass.
A spokesman for the US mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Israel is simultaneously lobbying Security Council members not to return the resolution but faces an uphill battle, according to three UN diplomats, as its policies in the West Bank face almost unanimous opposition. Are.
Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan, wrote a letter to members of the UN Security Council on Tuesday, urging them to condemn the recent attacks in Jerusalem that killed 11 Israelis, claiming that ” They are the direct result” of incitement from the Palestinian Authority and terrorist groups.
The letter made no mention of steps to further increase Israel’s presence in the West Bank, which was approved by the cabinet on Sunday and was drafted as a response to Palestinian attacks.
