It is unclear whether the UN Security Council will vote on a resolution that condemns Israeli settlements. For now, the vote has been delayed. Egypt, which sponsored the resolution, and which is currently sitting at the Security Council, said it wanted to postpone the vote, which had been set for Thursday, until after an Arab League meeting to review the text. Both Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President-elect Donald Trump called on the US to use its veto to block the measure. Netanyahu cited President Obama’s statement that peace will come not through UN resolutions but only through direct negotiations between the parties. According to Trump, the resolution is unfair to Israelis and would place Israel at a disadvantage in future negotiations. Netanyahu and Trump also reportedly urged Cairo to delay the vote; however, four other members of the Security Council - New Zealand, Venezuela, Malaysia and Senegal - said they reserve the right to move ahead with the vote.
So as it currently stands, there might still be a vote or it could be put off indefinitely. Reports indicate the White House was not considering a veto, but that if the resolution is amended, the US will need to review it before deciding how to vote.
The US, which has a veto at the Security Council, has traditionally protected Israel from condemnatory resolutions by voting them down. But there had been speculation that the Obama administration might change that strategy in the president’s final month in office and allow the resolution condemning Israel to pass by abstaining from voting in the Security Council. That would mark a major departure: the public admission of how unhappy the administration is with the Israeli government.
A draft of the resolution calls on Israel to “immediately and completely cease all settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem.” It also declares that the establishment of Israeli settlements, “including in East Jerusalem, has no legal validity and constitutes a flagrant violation under international law and a major obstacle to the achievement of the two-state solution.”
Israel last month revived plans to build 500 new homes for Jewish settlers in Israeli-annexed East Jerusalem. Under Netanyahu’s government, settlement construction has surged with some 15,000 settlers moving into the West Bank over the past year alone. But Israel has no moral or legal authority to build Jewish settlements in the occupied territories. To do so would be considered annexation by the occupation power. It is also a clear indication that the rule of law ends when matters have to do with the rights of Palestinians. Israel has clung to the claim that it has a God-given right to build settlements and, therefore, that they are not subject to the rule of international law. But settlements are in violation of international law. They legitimize and codify the usurpation of land belonging to the Palestinians. And Israeli settlements are the major stumbling block to peace efforts as they are built on land where the Palestinians will build their future state.
Since taking office in 2009, Obama vetoed a resolution presented to the Security Council once – in February 2011 when the Palestinians brought to a vote a resolution against the settlements. There has been much speculation as to whether the Obama administration will launch a final initiative on the Palestinian-Israeli issue before leaving office in January. If the Security Council vote goes ahead, President Obama might take a parting shot at a policy he has long opposed and at a right-wing Israeli leader who espouses that policy.
