The Palestinian Authority (PA) has reportedly backed away from pushing for a United Nations Security Council (UNSC) draft resolution condemning illegal Israeli settlement activity after pressure from the United States. The UNSC session which will focus on the “situation in the Middle East” and the “question of Palestine” is set to take place on Monday.
According to Reuters, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which had drafted the resolution along with PA officials, informed the UNSC that the resolution and the vote would be dropped. Other US and Israeli news outlets citing diplomatic sources said the PA agreed to drop pursuit of the vote amid pressure from the US government, including promises of a financial aid package as well as a temporary suspension of announcements on new Israeli settlement units and Palestinian home demolitions.
The Associated Press reported that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken had offered the Palestinians “a US package of incentives to entice them to drop or at least delay the resolution”. These incentives included a White House meeting for PA President Mahmoud Abbas with President Joe Biden, movement on reopening the American consulate in Jerusalem, and a significant aid package.
In addition, Axios news website reported that Israel agreed to several economic steps that will increase Palestinian tax revenues by more than $60m a year. It also said that the PA agreed to “start talks on resuming security coordination with Israel”, a controversial policy which includes sharing intelligence information about activists and publicly stating it is helping Israel thwart attacks. The PA suspended “the security coordination” in the wake of a deadly Israeli raid on the Jenin refugee camp last month.
The situation on the ground has become increasingly tense over the past few months under Israel’s new extreme right-wing government, which has taken steps to further ignite tensions including significantly increasing home demolitions in occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank, and carrying out several large deadly raids in Palestinian cities. Most recently, on February 13, the Israeli government approved the “legalisation” of nine settlement outposts and announced plans to advance thousands of new illegal settlement units, which prompted the UNSC draft resolution.
The US has criticised Israel’s decision to expand the settlements, but at the same time also expressed its reservations against a push for the UN to denounce the move. Meanwhile, Israel told the US on Monday that it will not authorise new settlements in the coming months.
Reports indicate that the Palestinian Authority has decided to drop its pursuit of a United Nations Security Council (UNSC) draft resolution condemning illegal Israeli settlement activity after pressure from Washington. The UAE, which had drafted the resolution along with PA officials, informed the UNSC that the resolution and the vote would be dropped.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken reportedly offered the Palestinians “a US package of incentives to entice them to drop or at least delay the resolution”. These incentives included a White House meeting for PA President Mahmoud Abbas with President Joe Biden, movement on reopening the American consulate in Jerusalem, and a significant aid package. In addition, Israel agreed to several economic steps that will increase Palestinian tax revenues by more than $60m a year.
The situation on the ground has become increasingly tense over the past few months under Israel’s new extreme right-wing government, which has taken steps to further ignite tensions including significantly increasing home demolitions in occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank, and carrying out several large deadly raids in Palestinian cities. The US has criticised Israel’s decision to expand the settlements, but at the same time also expressed its reservations against a push for the UN to denounce the move.
In response to dropping of the UNSC vote, Martin Konecny, head of the European Middle East Project said “anyone framing this as a US diplomatic success is taking a very narrow & biased lens”. He added that this was an example of US arm-twisting Palestinians to shelve entirely legitimate resolution, sidelining UNSC as guardian of int’l order & shielding Israel’s expansionism.
The Palestinian Authority has reportedly decided to back away from pushing for a UNSC draft resolution condemning illegal Israeli settlement activity after pressure from Washington. Reports indicate that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken offered incentives such as a White House meeting for PA President Mahmoud Abbas with President Joe Biden, movement on reopening the American consulate in Jerusalem, and a significant aid package in exchange for dropping pursuit of the vote.
In addition, Israel agreed to several economic steps that will increase Palestinian tax revenues by more than $60m a year. The PA also agreed to “start talks on resuming security coordination with Israel”, which includes sharing intelligence information about activists and publicly stating it is helping Israel thwart attacks.
The US has criticised Israel’s decision to expand settlements but at the same time also expressed its reservations against a push for the UN to denounce the move. Martin Konecny described this as an example of US arm-twisting Palestinians to shelve entirely legitimate resolution, sidelining UNSC as guardian of int’l order & shielding Israel’s expansionism.