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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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