United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has condemned fresh Israeli construction in the occupied territories of East Jerusalem and the West Bank. He stressed that there was no alternative to the two-state solution for Palestine and Israel and insisted that yet more illegal construction was a further obstacle in the way of its achievement.
The Secretary-General’s warning is the stronger because in December the United States declined to veto a Security Council resolution that demanded Israel immediately cease all settlement activities, warning that they were “dangerously imperiling the viability of a two-state solution”. This was seen as Obama’s long-withheld revenge against Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli leader with whom he had had less than cordial relations for much of his eight-year presidency. Welcome though the US abstention might have been, it was far too little and far too late.
Since Donald Trump took the White House, Netanyahu has announced two new illegal building schemes on Palestinian land. It is almost as if he wanted to rub Obama’s face in the dirt. Given that Trump has appointed David Friedman as his new ambassador to Israel and his senior aide, son-in law Jared Kushner, runs a foundation that is funding Israeli settlement building, Netanyahu clearly feels he has no more to fear in the way of US disapproval at the Security Council. He also made a point of using Trump’s favorite medium, Twitter, to announce the new settlement program.
The despair among Palestinians is almost palpable. The respected Palestinian Liberation Organization executive committee member Hanan Ashrawi said that Netanyahu’s new plans constituted a war crime and were in flagrant contravention of international law and conventions, not least December’s UN Security Council Resolution 2334.
On past showing, all of this will count for nothing. The Israeli playbook is there for everyone to read. The illegal settlements, coupled with some selective murders of Palestinian militants, will be used to provoke a violent reaction from the likes of Hamas. An outraged Israel will launch revenge attacks, clamp down further on the luckless population in the Occupied Territories and, the no less sinister development of the last two years, on Arabs who hold Israeli citizenship.
Guterres put his finger on the key issue in his censure of Netanyahu’s latest plans. The two-state solution could only come about if both parties engaged in “bona fide negotiations,” he said. And, of course, Israel has consistently avoided any such negotiations. While claiming to the international community that peace and a just settlement were its earnest desire, in the Occupied Territories, it has done everything it can to destroy the chance of genuine talks.
And this is more than just racist colonial-style repression. It must never be forgotten that since Israel was created in 1948, it has chosen to live its life as a wartime state. For almost 70 years Israel has been under arms. It has presented itself as a beleaguered little country surrounded by deadly Arab foes and as such it has called on the financial and military support of the United States. It does not know how to live in peace and it fears the consequences if it ever has to. Therefore, the bitter truth behind every new land grab, every new illegal settlement and every new humiliation of the Palestinians is that each is an act of war.
