Palestinians Fail To Win Enough Votes To Pass U.N. Resolution

Palestinians Fail To Win Enough Votes To Pass U.N. Resolution

By Paul Richter, Tribune Washington Bureau (TNS)

WASHINGTON — The United Nations Security Council late Tuesday rejected a Palestinian proposal calling for withdrawal of Israeli forces from the West Bank and East Jerusalem by the end of 2017, with eight votes in favor of the proposal but two against and five abstentions.

Nine votes are required for a resolution to be adopted by the council.

The failure of the sponsors to round up nine votes meant that the United States, which strongly opposed the language and voted no, was not required to cast a veto, a step the Obama administration was eager to avoid.

Palestinian authorities said they hoped the proposal would give new momentum to their stalled drive for an independent state, and had been working on the draft since September. The proposal also called for peace talks to be concluded within a year.

But critics accused the Palestinians of seeking to force a vote without full deliberations of the council, and without seeking compromises that might have won more votes. Israel strongly opposed the proposal as an effort to end-run peace negotiations.

Samantha Power, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said the proposal was “deeply imbalanced” and addressed the concerns of only the Palestinians without consideration of Israel’s security interests.

It would “undermine efforts to get back to an atmosphere that makes it possible to achieve two states for two peoples,” she said after the vote, which took place shortly after 5 p.m.

Australia voted against the proposal, along with the United States. Russia, France, Jordan, Chad, China, Luxembourg, Argentina and Chile voted in favor of it. Britain, Rwanda, Lithuania, Nigeria and South Korea abstained.

France’s yes vote was seen as a small victory for the Palestinians.

Photo: Photo/Mahmud Hams

Advertising

Start your day with National Memo Newsletter

Know first.

The opinions that matter. Delivered to your inbox every morning

Donald Trump
Trump: It's My Free Speech Right To Inspire Violent Threats Against Court Clerk
Donald Trump

There are few families more consequential to the rise of fascism in this country than the Mercers. Robert Mercer and his daughter Rebekah have been the big-money funders behind most of the most aggressively fascist-minded groups you may have heard of. While the more famous Koch family has centered its political giving around corporate-friendly dismantling of government, the Mercers are the funders for Republicanism's far right, from white nationalist organizations to anti-democratic hoaxes and paranoia.

Keep reading...Show less
Donald Trump
Former President Donald Trump

Imagine this: You’re a clerk to a judge in a New York State court. You graduated from the Cardozo School of Law in 2010, and since then, you have worked as an associate in a New York law firm. For five years, you worked for the City of New York in its Special Litigation Unit handling law suits against the city. You have been the clerk to Judge Arthur Engoron since 2019, getting up in the morning and traveling by subway into Manhattan to your office in his chambers, or sitting beside him in court, advising him on cases, filings, motions – the constant flow of legal documents and questions that any judge in a big city court deals with constantly.

Keep reading...Show less
{{ post.roar_specific_data.api_data.analytics }}