WEST BANK (Dispatches) – The Palestinian Hamas resistance movement has criticized the UN Security Council (UNSC) for its ‘watered-down’ statement in place of a draft resolution to explicitly condemn illegal Zionist settlement expansion plans, slamming the world body’s weakness and frailty vis-à-vis the occupying regime’s crimes and plots.
The Hamas condemnation comes after the UNSC fell short of passing a resolution, which would have demanded the regime put an end to its illegal settlement activities.
Hamas said that the withdrawal of a UN Security Council resolution on settlements shows the organ has evaded the responsibilities devolved upon it under international conventions and principles.
The movement called on the international community, the Security Council in particular, to adopt deterrent and tough measures against the occupying regime and its settlement expansion policies, and do not simply voice worries and condemnations.
The UN Security Council issued a symbolic statement on Monday, approved by all 15 members of the council, denouncing Zionist plans to expand illegal settlements on the occupied Palestinian territories. It also warned that such measures would “impede peace” and inhibit the so-called two-state solution.
The council expressed its “dismay” with plans by Zionist prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hard-line cabinet, which seeks further construction and expansion of settlements and the legalization of settlement outposts on private Palestinian land.
“The Security Council reiterates that continuing Israeli settlement activities are dangerously imperiling the viability of the two-state solution based on the 1967 lines,” said Vanessa Frazier, the permanent representative of Malta to the United Nations.
“The Security Council expresses deep concern and dismay with Israel’s announcement on February 12,” Frazier added, referring to the date when Netanyahu’s far-right cabinet gave authorization to the erection of nine settler outposts in the occupied West Bank.
Last week, the UNSC appeared set to vote on a draft resolution that would have demanded the regime “immediately and completely cease all settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territory.”
But reports by several U.S. and Israeli news outlets, citing diplomatic sources, later said the Palestinian Authority (PA) agreed to drop its pursuit of the vote amid pressure from the U.S. government.
The Reuters news agency said on Monday that the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which had drafted the resolution along with Palestinian Authority officials, informed the UN Security Council that the resolution and vote would be dropped.
More than 600,000 Zionists live in over 230 settlements built since the 1967 occupation of the West Bank and East Al-Quds.
The international community views the settlements – hundreds of which have been built across the West Bank since the regime’s occupation of the territory in 1967 – as illegal under international law and the Geneva Conventions due to their construction on the occupied territories.
The UN Security Council has condemned settlement activities in the occupied territories in several resolutions. The regime’s unabated construction campaign comes while the Palestinians have historically demanded that the West Bank serve as part of their future state with East Al-Quds, which is located inside the territory, as its capital.