NEW YORK – On Wednesday, the United States blocked a tripartite effort by Kuwait, Indonesia and South Africa to draft a resolution in the United Nations Security Council condemning Israel’s illegal demolition of Palestinian homes near Jerusalem.
Israeli officials claim that the 10 apartment blocks they demolished on Monday had been “built illegally” and somehow threaten the security of Israel’s armed forces that are stationed along a apartheid wall which runs through the occupied West Bank.
US President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy Jason Greenblatt told the UNSC a supposed ‘peace plan’ cannot rely on global consensus or international law and “unclear” U.N. resolutions – all which the US and Israel do not recognize or comply with. This hard line position held by the US leaves little room for any negotiations or cooperation with the wider international community.
But that not all: the US House of Representatives also voted to condemn boycotts against Israel this week.
(Image Source: The Independent-AFP/Getty)
The Independent reports…
The United States blocked an attempt to get the United Nations Security Council to condemn Israel’s demolition of Palestinian homes on the outskirts of Jerusalem, diplomats said.
Citing 17 Palestinians who would be displaced by the destruction, UN officials had called on Israel to halt the plans. But Israel continued, saying the 10 apartment buildings it demolished on Monday had been built illegally, and posed a threat to Israeli armed forces along the occupied West Bank. Most of the homes were still under construction.
On Tuesday, Kuwait, Indonesia, and South Africa circulated a five-paragraph draft statement to the 15-member Security Council expressing concern. The document, seen by Reuters, warned that the demolition “undermines the viability of the two-state solution and the prospect for just and lasting peace.”
The US told its counterparts that would not support the text, diplomats said. The country also rejected a revised three-paragraph draft statement.
Back home, the US House of Representatives voted to condemn the growing boycott movement against Israel on Tuesday, following a similar bill passed by the Senate.
Freshman congresswomen Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib both voiced concern for the vote. Representative Tlaib, the first Palestinian American woman in congress, gave a speech on the House floor the morning of the vote about her personal experience….
Continue this story at The Independent
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