US Faces Isolation on Security Council Over Settlements

A surge in settler violence and increased construction and plans for Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Jerusalem have again placed the Obama administration in a tough spot at the UN Security Council, where some of its closest allies Tuesday strongly condemned recent Israeli policies and settlement activities.

While American officials have repeatedly said they oppose Israeli settlement expansion as illegitimate and counter-productive to the peace process, the US administration used its first and only Security Council veto back in February to oppose a resolution condemning Israeli settlement expansion in a 14-1 vote. 

US support for Israel is a sensitive political issue for this administration.Republican opponents have already criticized the White House for its strained relationship with the Netanyahu government, and less than a year away from an election, the administration likely won’t change its position, should the issue once again come before the Security Council as was suggested by some countries Tuesday. 

Calls for Security Council involvement in the conflict come at a time when the US is trying to convince other Council members to support resolutions and sanctions targeting the regimes in Syria and Iran. A US veto to block another lopsided vote against settlements could further damage American standing in the Arab world and hurt administration’s efforts at the United Nations.

In a briefing on the latest developments Tuesday, UN assistant secretary-general for political affairs, Oscar Fernandez-Taranco called Israeli actions a violation of its obligations under the international community’s roadmap for peace.

Taranco said there had been an alarming increase in settlement construction in East Jerusalem, the cities of Shilo, Efrat and Beitar Illit and that after a long period of restraint, Israeli authorities had resumed in December the demolition of Palestinian residential structure in Jerusalem.

Taranco also briefed the Council members on renewed reports of settler violence, which he says have become a systematic occurrence and often take place in the context of anticipated government action against illegal settlement construction. He said that over the past month, mosques in the West Bank, Hebron, West Jerusalem and near Ramallah have been fire bombed and desecrated and that six Palestinians including two children had been injured in other attacks by settlers.

Security Council diplomats issued statements on behalf of larger diplomatic groups and individually after the briefing,  with IBSA ( India, Brazil, South Africa), the Non Aligned Movement (Group of 120 countries) ,  the four European Council members ( France, UK, Portugal, Germany) as well as Russia, each condemning the surge in settler construction and violence against Palestinian civilians. 

 The American delegation at the United Nations did not issue a statement.. 

Speaking on behalf on the four European Council members, British Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant said France, Portugal, Germany and the UK where “dismayed” by the negative developments on the ground, which he said had a devastating effect on the peace process. Lyall Grant urged the Israeli government to reverse course on settlement activity, including in East Jerusalem.

“We believe that Israel’s security and the realization of the Palestinians right to statehood  are not opposing goals. On the contrary, they are mutually reinforcing objectives but they will not be achieved while settlement building and settler violence continues.”

Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said Moscow was also increasingly concerned and frustrated by recent developments, which he said clearly raised human right concerns but also put in question the feasibility of the two state solution. 

“If you look at the map, you start wondering how, even theoretically, two states can be set up in Gaza and West Bank given this new reality.”

Churkin said his country would favor the Security Council using its leverage on the issue of settlements in hopes to encourage real negotiations.

“You can hear people these days say in other contexts: “The international community must act, the security council must act.” he said. “ Why doesn’t it apply to the Israeli-Palestinian track of our diplomatic and political effort? We think it can be done in a way which is not harming Israeli security and interests at all.”

Russia has of late been sharply criticized by US and European governments for blocking a Security Council resolution imposing sanctions on the Syrian government for its crackdown against protesters, although last week Moscow proposed its own draft resolution on Syria which has since been welcomed by European diplomats as a good starting point for negotiations.

Churkin said Israel’s large political coalition make any discussions about possible concessions a complicated for the Israeli government, and that the country’s leadership may need a “gentle prod” from the international community or Security Council to uphold its international obligations.

Both the NAM (Non-Aligned Movement) and IBSA (India, Brazil, South Africa) statements called on Council members to speak out against violations of international law and uphold Security Council resolutions on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. 

 Brazilian Ambassador Maria Luiza Ribeiro Viotti said ending settlement expansion wasn’t a concession “but an obligation as per various resolution per international law”.

 The Brazilian Ambassador said Security Council involvement was required to settle the conflict.

 “The IBSA countries believe the Security Council has an irreplaceable role to play in the peace process, mainly by condemning violence and calling for a complete halt to settlement activity, calling for the implementation of its own resolutions..”

In his report today assistant secretary-general for political affairs Taranco, also detailed the deteriorating security situation in Gaza and Southern Israel. 

Taranco said Israeli forces carried out 13 airstrikes and 9 incursions in Gaza over the past month, resulting in the death of eight Palestinian militants and injuring 24 civilians. 

He said Palestinian militants responded by firing 45 projectiles into Israel after one of the IDF strikes killed two Islamic jihad militants and injured 10 civilians. Israeli officials say the two Jihadist were preparing an attack. He said there was no reported injuries or damage in Israel from the rocket fire from Gaza.

 In the West Bank IDF forces carried out 237 operations,154 civilians injured including 6 children. The operations also resulted in the arrest of over 200 people.

US to Council Members: Abstain on Palestine Bid

 The United States is pushing hard to avoid a showdown next Friday in New York, where the Security Council is scheduled to announce a decision on Palestine’s application for full UN membership.

Although the United States has repeatedly said it would block any attempt to pass the resolution, the Obama administration wants to avoid using its veto and is asking other Council members to abstain from voting. A US veto of the Palestinian bid would be a significant blow to US standing in the Arab world.

Obama reportedly sent Bosnia Herzegovina leaders a letter this week asking them not to support the Palestinian request.

Palestinian leaders would need at least 9 votes in favor of the resolution from the Council’s 15 members to force a US veto. China, Russia, Lebanon, Brazil, India and South Africa have all said they would support Palestinian membership.

A UN diplomat has told the BBC that France, Colombia and the United Kingdom have already let the Security Council know they would abstain from voting, while Germany has indicated it would not support the Palestinian request, without saying if it would abstain or vote no.

The US would need two of the remaining four members; Bosnia,Portugal, Nigeria and Gabon, to abstain or vote no in order to avoid having to use its veto.

On Monday UN member states overwhelmingly voted to accept Palestine into UNESCO, forcing the US to cut off all of its funding to the organization. Current American law calls for the defunding of any UN organization that  accepts Palestine in its membership.

 Israel has responded to Palestine ascension to UNESCO by announcing it would speed up settlement construction in the West Bank and Jerusalem and stop payment of of the tax revenue it collects on behalf of the Palestinian Authority.

The Palestinian  envoy at the United Nations Riyad Mansour condemned Israel’s response and said he would ask the Security Council to intervene. UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon and officials at the US state department have both said they are concerned by Israel’s decisions.

The Obama administration used its first and so far only veto at the Security Council in February, when it was the lone Council member to oppose a resolution condemning Israeli settlement construction.

Palestinian UN Bid Moving One Small Step at a Time

The UN Security Council today agreed to refer Palestinian application for UN membership to a special committee which will begin examining its request Friday.

Council members met briefly this morning to make the announcement, the first step in a process that could likely take weeks, or longer, before any final decision. 

The Palestinian Authority’s Envoy at the UN, Riyad Mansour, told reporters he was pleased Security Council members had started the initial process preparing for deliberation over Palestine’s admission request .

” As you see, the process is moving forward step by step, and we hope that the Security Council will shoulder its responsibility and approve our application…” he told reporters outside the Security Council. 

 The Palestinian Authority would need 9 of the Security Council’s 15 members to vote in favor of the resolution, with no votes against coming from the security body’s five veto-wielding permanent members.(China, Russia, France, UK, US)

American officials have already indicated they would veto a resolution on Palestinian UN membership should it come before the Security Council, although it remains unclear if the the Palestinian Authority has secured the necessary 9 votes of support from other members of the Council. 

The Palestinian envoy also condemned the Israeli government’s decision yesterday to approve the construction of over 1000 housing units in East Jerusalem, calling it “provocative”, “illegal” and evidence the Netanyahu government has no regard for the international community’s peace plan. 

Mansour said the move was “a clear answer by the Israeli government to the Quartet, to negotiations and to the refusal of abiding by the global consensus on the fact that settlements are legal obstacle to peace and they need to be stopped.”

“This speaks clearly that Israel is not interested in negotiating with us, in spite of the fact they say they like to do so. Their action speaks louder than what they say verbally.” he added.

The Palestinian President and Israeli Prime Minister butted heads over the issue of settlements in their speeches last week to the General Assembly, with Mahmoud Abbas arguing that continued expansion was preventing the resumption of negotiations and Benjamin Netanyahu charging back that it was the recognition of Israel as a Jewish state, not settlements, that had ended talks. 

The UN and the large majority of international community consider settlement activity to be illegal. The Obama administration’s official position is that they are illegitimate and an impedement to the peace process. 

Israeli Ambassador Ron Prosor dismissed Mansour’s accusations over the latest settlement expansion, arguing that Jerusalem was the capital of the Jewish people, but also conceding that Israeli officials would be open to negotiations on the matter.  

“Every thing is on the table, everything is negotiable. I hear the Palestinians using every pretext in order to find a reason not to go into negotiations. All we want… is for both sides to sit down and negotiate everything, nothing is off the table.” he told reporters outside the Security Council. “We’ve started a process, and the process at the end of the day should be between Palestinians and Israelis talking about everything without any preconditions, in Jerusalem and in Ramallah.” 

The Middle East Quartet -Russia, United States, European Union and United Nations- issued a statement last week after Abbas filed the Palestinian request for UN membership, appealing to both sides to urgently return to negotiations and respect their obligations under the Middle East Roadmap. 

The Quartet statement also outlines timeline for the possible resumption of negotiations and calls on both parties to submit proposals on territory and security within the next three months.

Both Mansour and Prosor said their governments were in the process of reviewing the Quartet statement and expected official responses by the end of the week. 

US Vetoes Security Council Resolution On Israeli Settlements

The Obama administration Friday made its first use of its veto at the UN Security council, blocking a resolution condemning Israeli settlements.

The United States was the lone UN Security Council member to veto the resolution that identified Israeli settlements as illegal and called for an end to further construction in the Occupied Territories. 

US Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice said her country believed a Security Council resolution would further complicate negotiations between parties, but insisted the US veto was in no way a sign of support for Israeli settlements.

“Continued settlement activity violates Israel’s international commitments, devastates trust between the parties and threatens the prospects of peace. “ Rice told the Security Council,  “Every potential action must be measured against one overriding standard; will it move the parties closer to negotiation and an agreement. Unfortunately this draft resolution risks hardening the position of both sides. It could encourage the parties to stay out of negotiation, and if and when they did resume, to return to the Security Council whenever they reach an impasse.”

Media reports through out the week indicated Rice had been working to convince Palestinian and Arab leaders not to introduce the resolution, offering instead to issue a Security Council Presidential statement and further promises of diplomatic pressure on Israel as alternatives.

“In recent days, we offered a constructive alternative course forward, that we believe would have allowed the council to act unanimously to support the pursuit of peace. We regret that this effort was not successful”

Negotiations between Israeli and Palestinian officials broke down in again in September, after the Israeli government refused to extend a freeze on settlement construction in the West Bank