Defying Trump, UN General Assembly Condemns US Decree on Jerusalem
December 22, 2017 by admin
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Many Security Council resolutions since then, which have the force of international law, have warned that Jerusalem’s status is unresolved, that claims of sovereignty by Israel are invalid and that the issue must be settled in negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians.
Israel denounced Thursday’s vote, likening it to a 1975 resolution equating Zionism with racism, a decision that was repealed after 16 years because of intensive American pressure that included withholding American dues payments to the United Nations.
“It’s shameful that this meeting is even taking place,” Israel’s envoy to the United Nations, Danny Danon, told the General Assembly. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said in a Facebook post: “Israel completely rejects this preposterous resolution. Jerusalem is our capital. Always was, always will be.”
The American ambassador, Nikki R. Haley, called the vote “null and void,” declaring that “no vote in the United Nations will make any difference” on the United States’ plans to move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, which she called “the right thing to do.”
“We will remember it when we are called upon once again to make the world’s largest contribution to the United Nations,” she said of the vote. “And we will remember when so many countries come calling on us, as they so often do, to pay even more and to use our influence for their benefit.”
The United States Mission to the United Nations quickly issued a statement seeking to portray the outcome as a victory because the vote could have been even more lopsided. It cited the 35 abstentions, coupled with 21 delegations that were absent, representing a significant chunk of the total membership of 193.
“It’s clear that many countries prioritized their relationship with the United States over an unproductive attempt to isolate us for a decision that was our sovereign right to make,” the mission said in the statement emailed to journalists.
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But American Jewish organizations that strongly support Israel saw nothing positive about the outcome of the vote. David Harris, the chief executive of the American Jewish Committee, said he was “dismayed by the overwhelming support of U.N. Member States for the General Assembly resolution condemning U.S. recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.”
Stalwart American allies like France and Britain sought to frame their position as merely reaffirming the Security Council resolutions on Jerusalem dating back to 1967, which are still in force, and to play down the isolation of the United States.
“It is more important than ever to rally the international community around the agreed parameters of the peace process,” said France’s ambassador, François Delattre, “and this of course includes the United States, as everyone is aware of its particular role and influence on this issue.”
Nonetheless, the decisive rejection of the American shift of position on Jerusalem, on the world’s biggest diplomatic stage, was a setback for a president who is still looking for a major foreign achievement after nearly a year on the job. It also appeared to deepen the tension between Mr. Trump and the United Nations, which he once likened to a social club.
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Justin Lane/European Pressphoto Agency
Many diplomats who spoke before the vote — from Turkey, Venezuela, Pakistan, the Maldives, Bangladesh and others — took offense at the pressure campaign by the White House, including last-minute threats by Mr. Trump to cut off aid to countries who voted for the resolution.
“History records names, it remembers names — the names of those who stand by what is right and the names of those who speak falsehood,” said Riad Malki, the Palestinian foreign minister. “Today we are seekers of rights and peace.”
He said that the Palestinians “will not be threatened,” and that the United States had insisted on “ignoring the dangerous repercussions of its decision.”
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Aside from Israel, the only countries to side with the United States by voting no were Guatemala, Honduras, Togo, the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, Nauru and Palau.
The outcome, which many diplomats said privately was a foregone conclusion, deepened Mr. Trump’s isolation over the issue, threatened to alienate Arab allies of the United States and may have further complicated prospects for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
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The vote also reflected resentment toward threats by Mr. Trump and Ms. Haley that any country supporting the resolution risked a cutoff in aid. The willingness of other countries to ignore or play down such threats suggested that they had concluded that Mr. Trump was making them for domestic political reasons. It is also difficult to see how he could make good on a vow to cut financial assistance to important allies like Egypt, Iraq and Jordan.
The General Assembly resolution, drafted by Yemen and Turkey, cited numerous past resolutions on Jerusalem and urged nations to “refrain from the establishment of diplomatic missions.” The consensus under international law is that East Jerusalem, occupied by Israel since 1967, should be the future capital of a Palestinian state.
The resolution did not mention the United States by name, but it called for a “reversal of the negative trends on the ground that are imperiling the two-state solution.”
The General Assembly resolution was introduced a few days after a nearly identical resolution in the 15-member Security Council was vetoed by the United States — the lone no vote — an outcome that stoked Mr. Trump’s anger.
“All of these nations that take our money and then they vote against us at the Security Council or they vote against us, potentially, at the Assembly, they take hundreds of millions of dollars and even billions of dollars and then they vote against us,” Mr. Trump said on Wednesday.
“Well, we’re watching those votes,” he said. “Let them vote against us; we’ll save a lot. We don’t care.”
Mr. Trump is not the first president to have an antagonistic relationship with the United Nations. Since Franklin D. Roosevelt pushed for the creation of a world body after World War II, presidents have frequently felt stymied by the defiance of its members toward the United States or its allies. For a few, it was “a dangerous place,” in the words of Daniel Patrick Moynihan, the American ambassador to the United Nations under President Gerald R. Ford.
The General Assembly’s approval of a resolution in 1975 that equated Zionism with racism opened a contentious period, when the United States often found itself isolated in defending of Israel. President Ronald Reagan withheld American dues from the United Nations during the 1980s to pressure the General Assembly to reverse the Zionism resolution, which it did in 1991.
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In 2003, President George W. Bush clashed with allies at the United Nations over Iraq, after he claimed authority under Security Council Resolution 1441 to invade the country. France and Germany disagreed that the resolution, which had given Saddam Hussein an ultimatum to dismantle what the Americans said were his weapons of mass destruction. The United States then led a coalition of countries into Iraq.
Mr. Bush acted without obtaining a further Security Council resolution, and relations between the United States and the United Nations deteriorated. American lawmakers called for changes at the United Nations, complaining about what they said was its persistent anti-American and anti-Israel bias. Mr. Bush’s ambassador, John R. Bolton, once said of the 38-story United Nations building in New York, “If you lost 10 stories today, it wouldn’t make a bit of difference.”
Relations improved under President Barack Obama, who reemphasized the role of the United Nations as an agent for confronting global problems. The United States, however, continued to oppose Security Council and General Assembly resolutions that singled out Israel.
In the final days of Mr. Obama’s presidency, however, the United States abstained from voting on a resolution condemning Israel’s settlement construction. The episode has since come under scrutiny because the Israeli government contacted officials of Mr. Trump’s transition team to try to head it off.
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Trump suggests US will cut off aid for countries that vote for UN resolution
December 21, 2017 by admin
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President TrumpDonald John TrumpHouse Democrat slams Donald Trump Jr. for ‘serious case of amnesia’ after testimony Skier Lindsey Vonn: I don’t want to represent Trump at Olympics Poll: 4 in 10 Republicans think senior Trump advisers had improper dealings with Russia MORE suggested on Wednesday that the United States could withhold foreign aid for countries that vote in favor of a United Nations (U.N.) resolution calling on the U.S. to withdraw its recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
Speaking at a Cabinet meeting, Trump echoed a comment made by U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki HaleyNimrata (Nikki) HaleyHaley: ‘Open question’ if US athletes will attend Olympics amid North Korea tensions Haley: Trump isn’t deciding who controls east Jerusalem Emergency UN Security Council meeting called after Trump’s Jerusalem announcement: report MORE a day earlier, saying that the U.S. would take stock of the countries that voted for the resolution, which is set to go before the U.N. General Assembly on Thursday.
“I like the message that Nikki sent yesterday at the United Nations for all of these nations that take our money and then they vote against us at the Security Council, or they vote against us potentially at the assembly,” he said.
“They take hundreds of millions of dollars and even billions of dollars, and then they vote against us. Well, we’re watching those votes,” he added. “Let them vote against us, we’ll save a lot. We don’t care.”
The General Assembly is set to hold an emergency special session, requested by Arab members, on Thursday to discuss Trump’s move to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
The vote on the resolution comes days after the U.S. vetoed a similar resolution in the U.N. Security Council. Unlike on the Security Council, however, the U.S. does not wield veto power in the General Assembly.
The resolution condemning the U.S. move is not legally binding. But its passage would be a symbolic rebuke of Trump’s decision, and would exert political pressure on Washington.
Haley blasted the upcoming resolution vote on Tuesday, saying in a tweet that the U.S. would be “taking names” of those countries that voted in support of the measure.
In announcing earlier this month that the U.S. would recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and would begin the process of moving its embassy in Israel to the city, Trump reversed decades of U.S. policy in the region and defied international consensus on the matter.
Jerusalem is revered by Christians, Muslims and Jews, and Israel has long considered the city its capital. But Palestinians have also aspired to establish the eastern sector of the city as the capital of a future independent state, and the international community has generally held that Jerusalem’s status must ultimately be decided in peace negotiations.
Trump’s decision has threatened to derail peace talks between the Israelis and Palestinians, which he has vowed to broker and has called the “ultimate deal.”
Trump said at the Cabinet meeting on Wednesday that Americans were “tired of this country being taken advantage of” by other nations willing to oppose the U.S. on the world stage.
“This isn’t like it used to be where they could vote against you, and then you pay them hundreds of millions of dollars and nobody knows what they’re doing,” he said.