The Security Council adopted a resolution last Friday night calling on Israel “to cease on an urgent basis the establishment, construction and planning of settlements” in the occupied territories. The vote was 14-0, with one abstention, the United States.
Following the vote, Israel issued at the United Nations, a statement denouncing the resolution, calling it “one-sided,” and “distorted.” The statement said the resolution “is yet a further encouragement to those attempting to subvert and bypass the current peace efforts in the Mideast. One-sided reports and resolutions that ignore the rights and interests of any party will not help to achieve a just and durable peace.”
Israel also charged in its statement that the settlements debate, which considered the recommendation of a three-member commission’s report on Israeli settlements in the administered territories, was instigated by Jordan last March to subvert the Egyptian-Israeli peace negotiations. “The commission’s report,” Israel declared, “takes no account of Israel’s security requirements and to tally ignores the inalienable rights of the Jewish people in its homeland, including the right to settle in any part of the land of Israel.”
The commission, established by the Council March 22, comprises representatives of Zambia, Bolivia and Portugal. Israel has not cooperated with the commission and when it visited the Mideast in June it did not allow its members to enter the territories in question. In its report to the Council the commission sharply criticized Israel’s policies in the territories.
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