In the UN Security Council yesterday the US voted against the resolution to end Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem thereby endorsing the continuation of the illegal settlements in the Occupied Territories that prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state and an end to the devastating conflict. 

The resolution, in which Britain abstained, was supported by France and seven other members of the 15 strong Security Council and was a move by over half the world including Russia and China, to end the status quo.

The document called for Israel to fully withdraw from all occupied Palestinian territories by the end of 2017 and for a comprehensive peace deal to be reached within a year.

Yesterday’s vote by the U.S. specifically supports Israel’s violation of international law and sets the seal on one of the most ignominious American administrations of modern times. It gives Israel carte blanche to continue its program of illegal settlement that has, to date, moved over half a million of its own citizens onto Palestinian land.

The resolution had affirmed the urgent need to achieve a just, lasting and comprehensive peaceful solution to the violence of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict within one year and had stipulated Dec. 31, 2017 as the deadline for an end to Israel’s illegal occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem. It had called for the establishment of an independent state of Palestine within the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital and a just solution to thousands of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails, the return of refugees and the re-allocation of vital water supplies.

All this has now been specifically rejected by the U.S. in a portent of the instability and violence to come. There is no other precedent in modern times of an American congress being held so completely subservient to the will of lobbyists acting in the interests of a foreign state.