Historic Step: UNSC Votes To End To Israeli Settlements In Palestine!
27 November 2016
By Dr. Abdul Ruff Colachal
The process of establishing a soverign Palestine state is being supported by
UN vote for defacto Palestine and the UN agencies doing all possible help for
the Palestinians to move forward to get Palestine by legal means. Now a
historic action by UNSC has legally binding Israel for the consequences of its
illegal settlements in Palestine and asked Israel to remove all settlements
illegal in Palatine- impediments for credible talks and for peace.
UNSC can vote resolution only if no veto
member disagrees on it and that has happened now. USA has abstained from
voting in order to clear way for the resolution to sail through. Israel stand
isolated legally, internationally.
Despite unusual diplomatic maneuvering
involving President-elect Donald Trump, Israel, and Egypt on December 22, the
United Nations Security Council passed a historic resolution on December 23
Friday demanding an end to Israeli settlements. As a positive step, the USA
abstained, effectively allowing the measure to be approved- the first ever
positive step b y the superpower in years ever since Israel was forced into
Palestine and made a full UN member in 1948.
UN resolution that's become such a controversial issue the last couple of days
only asks Israel to adhere to international law. The draft resolution demands
Israel ''immediately and completely cease all settlement activities in the
occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem'', and says the
establishment of settlements by Israel has ''no legal validity and constitutes
a flagrant violation under international law''.
Egypt withdrew the original resolution
on 22 December afternoon, reportedly ''under pressure'' from both President
Barack Obama and President elect Trump —who tweeted on the matter Thursday
morning. —and Israel. Had this move worked, it could have punted the measure
to the incoming Trump government, which is seen as more friendly to Israel
than that of President Barack Obama—especially after Trump's nomination last
week of conservative Zionist hardliner David Friedman to serve as US
ambassador to Israel. It was expected Trump would choose a pro-Palestine
diplomat to be sent to Tel Aviv to bring about credible peace between Zionist
terror victim Palestine and Israel, an arrogantly positioned and occupier of
Palestinian territories with US backing.
But the Security Council members New
Zealand, Malaysia, Venezuela, and Senegal stepped in and the vote took place
after all on Friday afternoon.
The US abstention, which was expected as the Obama government has given up
pro-Israeli stance for the time being, was described as a relatively rare step
by Washington, which usually uses it UN veto to shield Israel from such
action, and as a parting shot by US President Obama who has had an acrimonious
relationship with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and who has made
settlements a major target of peace efforts that have proven ultimately
futile.''
In response to the
vote, pro-peace organization the Jewish Voice for Peace executive director
Rebecca Vilkomerson declared: ''There is an increasing understanding among US
political leaders, thanks to ongoing grassroots pressure, of the need to hold
Israel accountable to international law. The US abstention from this
resolution is a welcome sign in that regard.''
However, she added, ''with
President-elect Trump urging a veto of even this mild resolution, as well as
his nomination of an extreme right-wing Ambassador to Israel, we are deeply
concerned by increasing US support for Israeli incitement, annexation, and
control under his administration and will redouble our efforts to organize
resistance to policies based in Islamophobia, racism, and disregard for even
the most basic rights of Palestinians.''
Earlier, Trump wasn't the only one who
called on the USA to veto the measure; a number of hardcore Zionist US
senators serving Israeli terror interests in Mideast on Friday joined him by
issuing aggressive statements to that effect, making loud that the money they
receive from Israel is worth the trouble
And interestingly Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who serves as chairman of
the Subcommittee on Foreign Operations of the Senate Appropriations Committee,
threatened to reduce US to the United Nations'' if the body moves forward with
the ill-conceived resolution to upset Israeli straggly to expand illegal
settlements in Palestine
Relations between Israel and Palestine have been wrecked for decades, as
Palestinians have been seeking diplomatic recognition for their independent
state of Palestine on the territories of the West Bank, including East
Jerusalem, which is also partially occupied by Israel, and the Gaza Strip.
Israel brutally occupies Palestine
territories and attacks Gaza strips, now targeting women and children. UN is
just watching the Zionist terror shows as Palestinians conti8neu to bleed and
yet they are called the terrorists by leading US Zionists like Madam Clinton.
Peace has not been the motto of Obama as he intensified the wars launched by
roguish Bushdom leaders on the pretext of Sept-11 hoax.
Ignoring intentional law stimulations,
Israel brutally occupies Palestine territories with illegal Jewish settlements
and attacks Gaza strips, now targeting women and children. UN is just watching
the Zionist terror shows as Palestinians conti8neu to bleed and yet they are
called the terrorists by leading US Zionists like Madam Clinton.
When Israel attacks Gaza Strip, killing
even children or cancels the talks with Palestinians, USA admires and supports
Israel mainly because US leaders do not seek peace or regional normalcy
anywhere in the world, especially in energy rich West Asia. The most recent
round of peace talks between the Israelis and Palestinians was initiated by
the United States in mid-2013 but ended in an impasse almost a year later. USA
plays mischief in the name of diplomacy with Palestine and world. President
Obama, like his predecessors had done before him, just could not push the
arrogant Israeli regime to come to terms with reality and agree for peaceful
resolution of the Mideast conflict that makes the world vulnerable to tensions
and wars.
President elect Trump is expected to choose peace in order to wind down all
terror wars. Hence his views on Palestine gains importance. Following the
presidential poll, US President-elect Donald Trump assured the global
community of the serious approach of USA in changing political atmosphere and
said he wants to put an end to the Israel-Palestinian conflict and thereby
bring to the Mideast region. ''That's the ultimate deal,'' Trump said in an
interview with the Wall Street Journal, referring to the complex conflict as
the ''war that never ends.'' Just one day after winning the election, Trump
has asked hawkish Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu to meet with him in the USA.
Trump noted that any deal should be
directly negotiated between Israel and Palestine, but that his government
would play a ''significant role'' in helping the parties to achieve a just,
lasting peace,'' according to the Times of Israel.
In an interview with ''Israel Today'', a free daily owned by Republican
super-donor Sheldon Adelson, Trump said he believed his government can play
''a significant role'' in helping the Middle East parties reach an agreement.
Netanyahu, however, had ordered his
Cabinet and lawmakers to avoid speaking to the media about the election while
the incoming US administration formulates its policies and told his Cabinet on
November 13, 2016 that he would soon be meeting Trump.
A senior Israeli Cabinet Minister Naftali Bennett on November 14, 2016 said
the election of Donald Trump has helped create an opportunity for Israel to
abandon its stated commitment to the establishment of a Palestinian state. The
remarks by Bennett reflect sentiment in the nationalist Israeli right wing
that Trump's election many Zionists believe could usher in a new era of
relations with the United States.
While these two capitalist countries are close allies, relations were
sometimes tense between US President Barack Obama and Israeli PM Benjamin
Netanyahu because of their vastly different world views.
Bennett last week welcomed Trump's election, predicting that ''the special
relationship'' with the US would grow stronger and noting that the Republican
campaign platform had no mention of a Palestinian state. In fact many in USA
and Israel are happy that Trump has chosen a hard core Zionist as US envoy for
fascist Israel. They believe for Trump ''The era of a Palestinian state is
over''.
Bennett leads the Jewish Home party, a coalition partner that is affiliated
with the West Bank settler movement. He is one of the most influential voices
in Israeli politics, and both his party and most members of Netanyahu's Likud
oppose Palestinian statehood on either religious or security grounds. Bennett
has called for annexing parts of the West Bank and granting the Palestinians
in other parts expanded autonomy, with new roads, office parks and economic
opportunities, with Israel retaining overall security control.
Israel and its media kept themselves away from Is US elections, not siding
with Trump. . Speaking to foreign reporters on November 14, 2016, Bennett was
more cautious, citing an order by Netanyahu for his Cabinet not to talk about
the election in public. But he made it clear that Trump will push his
government to rethink its commitment to Palestinian independence. Bennett said
that the combination of the changes in the USA, in Europe that the region
provides Israel with a unique opportunity to reset and rethink everything.
''It's no secret that I think that the notion of setting up a Palestine in the
heart of Israel is a profound mistake. I believe that we have to bring
alternative new ideas instead of the Palestinian state approach''.
Now the Cabinet Minister Ofir Akunis, a
close Netanyahu associate, called for a renewed wave of settlement
construction. But such sentiments may have been premature.
This explains the Zionist petrified
mindset with regard to Palestine state and Palestinians.
For two decades, the international
community has been pushing for a negotiated peace deal that would include the
establishment of a Palestinian state in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza
Strip – areas captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war.
Though Bennett said he did not know whether Trump would support that view, he
said it is critical that Israel now clearly define its own vision. After many
years, the Israeli government has to decide what we want''. Bennett's comments
were also an indicator of the pressure Netanyahu could soon face to abandon
his commitment to the ''two-state solution'' favored by President Obama,
President elect Trump and the international community.
The thinking was that Israel's continued occupation of millions of
Palestinians would create a demographic time bomb, threatening Israel's status
as a democracy with a Jewish majority.
After opposing Palestinian independence
for most of his career, Netanyahu, like his predecessors had done, reluctantly
endorsed the idea shortly after Obama took office in 2009. Critics, including
Obama, have said that continued Israeli settlements on occupied territories
have undercut the goal, and the Obama government has at times questioned
Netanyahu's commitment to seeking peace.
Though never supported Trump's campaign,
Israeli hard-liners welcomed Trump's election late, noting the support for
Israel in his campaign platform and the many pro-Israel officials who advised
him during his campaign. Their spirits were further boosted after a Trump
adviser, Jason Greenblatt, told an Israeli radio station that his boss does
not think the West Bank settlements are an ''obstacle to peace.''
But that is now history.
Trump's unpredictability has raised concerns that he might change his
attitudes once in office. For instance, Trump told the Wall Street Journal
that he would like to help broker a solution to the conflict ''for humanity's
sake''.
All sensible people and powers around the globe hope that the Trump regime
will not give vent to his unexplainable hatred for Muslims in depriving the
Palestinian people – who have been driven forcefully away by USA-UK-Jewish
people from their motherland more than seven decades back in 1948 to carve out
an illegal and fascist Israel – in realising their genuine rights of a free
Palestine state.
UNSC vote to end to Israeli settlements in Palestine is indeed a historic step
to further easy the movement for establishing Palestine as a full UN member
sooner than later.