PHRC deplores US veto on UN resolution condemning Israeli

PHRC deplores US veto on UN resolution condemning Israeli settlements
The Palestine Human Rights Campaign Aotearoa/New Zealand (PHRC) spokesperson, Billy Hania, denounced the US action in using its veto to block a Security Council Resolution affirming the illegality of Israel's Occupation settlements. Mr Hania said that "the veto isolates the US from the vast majority of global civil society and undermines the rule of international law, the only effective mechanism for safeguarding peace and stability with justice".

The Palestinian people resisted US President Barack Obama's threats, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's offer, of incentives not to proceed with the Resolution leading the US into self-imposed isolation. Fourteen of the 15 Security Council members voted in favour of the Resolution, leaving the US to use its lone veto to help Israel avoid its obligations under international law. Sponsored by 130 countries, the Resolution, reaffirmed that Israel's settlements “constitute a major obstacle to the achievement of a just, lasting and comprehensive peace."

US ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice's opinion that the UN was not the best place to seek to resolve the issue flies in the face of history and natural justice. Israel's Occupation settlements are maintained and expanded at the cost of Palestinian life and limb. The daily (and nightly) ruthless suppression of Palestinian human rights includes home invasions, severely limiting the Palestinian water supply in favour of illegal settlements, abuse of Palestinian children, agricultural and economic sabotage, segregation of roads, house demolitions, the destruction of Bedouin villages, attacks on Palestinian fishing boats and blockade of the Gaza Strip. See Richard Falk: Report of Special Rapporteur to the UN Human Rights Council on Occupied Palestinian Territories for further detail.

The PHRC calls on the New Zealand Government to show its support for the United Nations and the due observance of international legal obligations.

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