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THE UN SECURITY COUNCIL have rejected a Palestinian resolution demanding an end to Israeli occupation within three years.
The rejection comes as a blow to an Arab campaign to get the UN’s most powerful body to take action to achieve an independent state of Palestine.
Israel expressed satisfaction today.
“Every Israeli who wants peace with our neighbours can only be satisfied with the results of this vote,” deputy foreign minister Tzahi HaNegbi told public radio several hours after the resolution failed to pass.
The United States, Israel’s closest ally, had made clear its opposition to the draft resolution, insisting on a negotiated peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians, not an imposed timetable. It would have used its veto if necessary but it didn’t have to because the resolution failed to get the minimum nine “yes” votes required for adoption by the 15-member council.
The resolution received eight “yes” votes, two “no” votes — one from the United States and the other from Australia — and five abstentions.
“We voted against this resolution not because we are comfortable with the status quo. We voted against it because … peace must come from hard compromises that occur at the negotiating table,” US Ambassador Samantha Power said.
She criticised the decision to bring the draft resolution to a vote as a “staged confrontation that will not bring the parties closer.” She added that the resolution was “deeply unbalanced” and didn’t take into account Israel’s security concerns.
Peace
“Our effort was a serious effort, genuine effort, to open the door for peace,” said Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian UN ambassador. “Unfortunately, the Security Council is not ready to listen to that message.”
Until shortly before the vote, council diplomats had expected the resolution to get nine “yes” votes. But Nigeria, which was believed to support the resolution, abstained. Its ambassador, U. Joy Ogwu, echoed the US position saying the ultimate path to peace lies “in a negotiated solution.”
The Palestinians, nonetheless, could point to support from two European nations, France and Luxembourg, reflecting the growing impatience especially in Europe over the lack of progress in achieving a two-state solution, and the increasing pressure on governments to do something to end the decades-old conflict.
Impatience
This impatience, and frustration over the Security Council’s paralysis in dealing with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, was echoed by many on the council, including the United States.
Jordan’s UN Ambassador Dina Kawar, the Arab representative on the council, said after the vote:
The fact that this draft resolution was not adopted will not at all prevent us from proceeding to push the international community, specifically the United Nations, towards an effective involvement to achieving a resolution to this conflict.
Mansour said Palestinian leaders will be meeting Wednesday “and will decide on next steps.”
Before the vote, Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said that the Palestinians can return again to the Security Council, which will have five new members starting Thursday who are viewed as more sympathetic to their cause.
If the council says “no” again, he said, the Palestinians will seek to join the International Criminal Court. They could then press charges against Israel for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
France had put forward a draft resolution setting the outlines for a peace agreement and setting a two-year deadline for negotiations — and French Ambassador Francois Delattre told the council he will be pursuing council action to resolve the conflict.
Israel’s image and its standing, especially in Europe, have come under increasing pressure as a result of this summer’s Gaza war and its refusal to halt settlement building.
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What’s not mentioned in this article is that the boom in the economy is the tech giants rolling into town, for example Amazon in Seattle or Facebook in CA. They ship in workers from all over the world, drive rents up and push residents out onto the streets. Add the rental properties taken off the market by Airbnb and renting becomes impossible for workers on an average industrial wage or lower. Not unlike what is happening here.
@Kate Murphy: So your saying that shipping in people from all over the world causes homelessness?
@Don Shavago: Nope, I´m saying that tech giants taking over a city and bringing in workers drives up rents and causes homelessness. I think you tried to twist my words into some sort of anti-immigration statement? Not my agenda at all. More anti-corporation. For example: Capitol Hill in Seattle has always been an arty, queer, radical neighbourhood. Amazon came in, brought thousands of staff (40,000 currently), and, attracted by cheap rents and a cool, creative vibe, a lot of their staff moved to Capitol Hill. Now, the area has got so many homeless people sleeping rough, many of whom are previous renters in that area. Gentrification targets the most vulnerable in society – those with low incomes, or mental health issues.
We seem to want an american style of goverment, property tax, privitizaton of all services… the downside to this is we all must work harder and longer, people will be left behind.
Our government need to be conscious of every time they increase the cost of living…
@Stephen Cullen: The only way the government is involved in cost of living increases is through tax. So you want tax reduced then?
@Stephen Cullen: sounds like communism
Homeless in southern California is not as bad as in New York or Ireland because of the weather there.
@tom McCormack: you can’t eat sunshine
@Dave O Keeffe: You mean Kelloggs Cornflakes have been lying to us?
@tom McCormack: have you ever been to San Fran….it’s scandalous bad
@tom McCormack: did you miss the bit with hepatitis being a problem that kills you?
@Padraic Burke: San Fran is survivable outside in the winter. Even Vancouver is, which is why so many homeless move there from across Western Canada.
Flooded with homelessness articles for the Irish and just in case we don’t have enough of those, here is one from the other side of the world, ffs give us a break.
Is it a global conspiracy?
Homelessness is worldwide. Listening to irish media and vested interests. I thought it was only an Irish problem caused by Fine Gael.
@Macc Dan: a global issue caused by policies by the likes of FG
Capitalism is such an amazing, roaring success isn’t it?
@Franklin Roosevelt: as opposed to what happened to Venezuela. Sure. Too many people in this world. Some have gotta be ok right, for the survival of the planet.
Just arrived back from that part of America. Las Vegas, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Unbelievable the amount of homeless people living on the streets, under bridges and any piece of waste ground. Thousands and thousands of them. I have never seen anything like it. Parts of it looks like the jungle in Calais. Absolutely disgusting for supposedly the richest country on Earth. If Trump is going to make America great again he would want to start here and not with his rich buddies.
They should have mentioned the fact that certain offensives means you can’t live near schools. This means when they are released from prison they can only live in the homeless camps.
Wouldn’t surprise me if it was the gov spin unit behind this article. The FG solution to the homeless crisis is to normalize it, then it’s not a crisis anymore! Typical Irish gombeen political solution when they’re not competent enough to actually find a solution.
@Adrian:
There is an article on leinster club football just above this, see if you can get an anti FG rant into that as well..
@P.J. Nolan: I’m a keen rugby fan, former FG voter, and a critic of successive Irish governments’ abject failure to address the housing crisis. As well-run countries like Austria have shown, social housing helps to protect the private market from the disastrous swings in price we have seen in Ireland. The market should serve us, not be our master.
Homelessness is a problem that should be aggressively tackled. In this regard, the US should serve as a warning rather than a good example. We don’t want typhus, a disease associated with the Famine, coming back to Ireland as it has among the homeless in LA. Irish governments seem to have almost given up on social housing. They used to do a decent job at that.
have your say