The UN Security Council on Friday passed a resolution demanding Israel cease Jewish settlement activity on Palestinian territory in a unanimous vote that passed with the United States abstaining rather than using its veto as it has reliably done in the past.
The resolution said settlements are threatening the viability of the two-state solution, and urged Israelis and Palestinians to return to negotiations that lead to two independent nations.
This marked the first time in more than 36 years that the Security Council passed a resolution critical of settlements.
The United States’ abstention Friday reflected mounting frustration in the Obama administration over settlement growth that the United States considers an obstacle to peace.
The resolution came one day after a scheduled vote was postponed when the sponsor, Egypt, withdrew it after the Egyptian president spoke by phone with President-elect Donald Trump. Friday’s resolution was sponsored by New Zealand, Malaysia, Venezuela and Senegal.
Shortly before the vote, several U.S. senators said that if it passed, they would introduce legislation to cut off U.S. funding to the United Nations and to any states that voted in favor of it.
On Friday, an Israeli official said Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry “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 and effectively make the Western Wall occupied Palestinian territory,” the Associated Press reported.
The official, who wasn’t authorized to be quoted by name, also praised Trump for heading off the resolution on Thursday.
Israel knew the U.S. was coordinating an “ambush” with the Palestinians, said another Israeli official, who similarly demanded anonymity.
A senior Obama administration official fired back, saying Egypt championed the resolution “from the start” and crediting “other Security Council members, not the United States,” for the renewed push on Friday. The resolution is now sponsored by New Zealand, Malaysia, Senegal and Venezuela.
The U.S., along with the Palestinians and nearly all of the international community, considers Israeli settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem obstacles to peace. Some 600,000 Israelis live in the two territories, which Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast war.
Trump has signaled he will be far more sympathetic to Israel.
