Palestine’s permanent representative to the United Nations, Riyad Mansour, called Friday, December 30, on the Security Council to take immediate follow-up steps to insure tangible results from its anti-settlement resolution 2334. The resolution, which condemns Israeli settlement activities in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) and calls upon Israel to halt all such activities, was adopted on December 23 by 14 votes in favor with the United State abstaining.
The Security Council adopted resolution 2334 (2016), last week, reiterating its demand that Israel immediately and completely cease all settlement activities in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, including East Jerusalem. The vote on the resolution was 14 in favor, with one member, the United States, abstaining. (Photo: United Nations)
According to the Palestinian news agency Wafa, in identical letters sent to the president of the Security Council and other member states, Mansour said that in blatant violation of the resolution, Israel seems intent in continuing with its settlement program in the OPT, which he described as “contempt” for the Security Council and the 15 member states who adopted it. “Clearly at the moment, all indications are … that Israel intends to proceed apace with its illegal policies, plans and measures in occupied Palestine, including East Jerusalem, in blatant contempt of Resolution 2334 (2016), in grave violation of its legal obligations, and in total contradiction to the two-state solution,” he wrote.
In response to the Israeli reaction to the resolution, Mansour urged the Council to take “serious and immediate follow-up efforts to give meaning and tangible effect to Resolution 2334 (2016).” The Palestinian official called on the Security Council to stand firm by its decision “and by the law and to stand on the right side of history.”
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