Israeli settlements ‘impede peace’: UN Security Council

United Nations, United States (AFP):

The UN Security Council has expressed its “dismay” with plans by Israel’s government to retroactively legalize Jewish settlements in occupied Palestinian lands, warning in a statement that such measures “impede peace.”

“The Security Council reiterates that continuing Israeli settlement activities are dangerously imperiling the viability of the two-State solution,” the Council said in a statement supported by all 15 members but which does not have the binding force of a resolution considered last week.

That earlier draft resolution, proposed by the United Arab Emirates, had called on Israel to “immediately and completely cease” settlement activities in occupied Palestinian areas.

Diplomatic sources confirmed that the draft, condemning “all attempts at annexation, including decisions and measures by Israel regarding settlements, including settlement outposts” had been dropped and would be replaced by the new statement issued by the president of the Security Council.

The draft resolution had also reiterated the demand “that Israel immediately and completely cease all settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem.”

The initiative provoked opposition from the United States, which has the right of veto in the Council.

The White House said it was “deeply dismayed” by the plans.

Washington had at the same time denounced the announcement a few days earlier by the Israeli security cabinet of the legalization of nine settlements in the occupied West Bank.

The new statement says the Council “strongly opposes all unilateral measures that impede peace, including, inter alia, Israeli construction and expansion of settlements, confiscation of Palestinians’ land, and the ‘legalization’ of settlement outposts, demolition of Palestinians’ homes and displacement of Palestinian civilians.”

Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian lands are recognized as illegal according to international law. The current hardline Netanyahu government in Israel encourages further expansion of Israeli settlements in the occupied region, leading to forced demolitions of Palestinian homes.