<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
</head>
<body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000">
<div id="container" class="container font-size5 content-width3">
<div id="reader-header" class="header" style="display: block;"
dir="ltr"> <font size="-2"><a id="reader-domain" class="domain"
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/israel-punishes-world-after-un-vote">https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/israel-punishes-world-after-un-vote</a></font>
<h1 id="reader-title">Israel punishes the world after UN vote</h1>
</div>
<div class="content">
<div id="moz-reader-content" class="line-height4" dir="ltr"
style="display: block;">
<div id="readability-page-1" class="page"
xml:base="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/israel-punishes-world-after-un-vote">
<article class="node-19001 node node-blog view-mode-full
node-is-page image-landscape">
<p>December 27, 2016<br>
</p>
<p>On Monday evening I appeared on Al Jazeera English to
speak about Israel’s reaction to Friday’s UN Security
Council <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/us-lets-security-council-pass-resolution-against-israeli-settlements">decision</a>.</p>
<p><a
href="https://www.un.org/press/en/2016/sc12657.doc.htm">Resolution
2334</a>, passed by a vote of 14-0 with the United
States abstaining, reaffirmed that Israel’s settlements
in the occupied West Bank, including Jerusalem, are
illegal.</p>
<p>While I previously expressed <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/why-un-resolution-settlements-would-be-bad-palestinians">strong
reservations</a> about the resolution – because it
does not go far enough and could undermine some key
Palestinian positions – I told Al Jazeera that Israel’s
panicked reaction is significant.</p>
<p>It is a sign that Israel interprets the UN move as a
severe blow to its unrestrained colonialism on
Palestinian land and as an indication that it is
becoming seriously isolated.</p>
<p>I also argued that Israel’s attacks on President Barack
Obama, and its open alignment with President-elect
Donald Trump, are evidence of the fracturing of the
pro-Israel bipartisan consensus in the United States.</p>
<h2>Boosting BDS?</h2>
<p>The resolution demands that Israel “immediately and
completely cease all settlement activities in the
occupied Palestinian territory, including East
Jerusalem,” but it imposes no specific consequences if
Israel fails to do so. In that sense it is as toothless
as all its predecessors.</p>
<p>But without the fig leaf of a peace process to hide
behind, Israel clearly fears that patience is running
out and that this resolution will boost Palestinian-led
efforts to hold Israel accountable – particularly the
boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement.</p>
<p>Ron Dermer, Israel’s ambassador to the United States, <a
href="http://www.cnn.com/videos/tv/2016/12/26/israeli-ambassador-ron-dermer-on-un-resolution-u-s-relations.cnn">told
CNN</a> that the resolution “encourages boycotts and
sanctions against Israel.”</p>
<p>But Israel, already in a weak position internationally,
seems determined to antagonize the world as much as
possible.</p>
<p>Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who also holds the
foreign ministry portfolio, has <a
href="http://www.cnn.com/2016/12/26/politics/israel-benjamin-netanyahu-diplomatic-ties/">ordered</a>
that “working ties” be limited with 12 of the 14
countries on the Security Council that backed the
resolution – the two others, Malaysia and Venezuela,
have no diplomatic ties with Israel.</p>
<p>This means, in effect, that Israel is imposing
diplomatic sanctions on the likes of China, Russia, the
United Kingdom and France.</p>
<p>Israel has already <a
href="http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/1.761485">canceled</a>
a visit by the prime minister of Ukraine, prompting Kiev
to summon the Israeli ambassador for a dressing down.</p>
<h2>Test for new UN chief</h2>
<p>Netanyahu also <a
href="http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4898065,00.html">ordered</a>
the foreign ministry to “reevaluate” ties with the UN
and has reportedly cut a total of about $8 million in
funding to five UN institutions “that are particularly
hostile towards Israel.” It is considering withholding
another $48 million in membership dues.</p>
<p>Israel is also reportedly considering halting visas for
employees of UN agencies and expelling <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/chris-gunness">Chris
Gunness</a>, the spokesperson for UNRWA, the UN agency
for Palestine refugees.</p>
<p>It would be an unprecedented step for Israel to expel
the spokesperson of a UN agency.</p>
<p>“We’ve heard nothing official and therefore I have no
substantive comment,” Gunness told The Electronic
Intifada.</p>
<p>Gunness has long been a thorn in Israel’s side – he has
been one of the few international officials willing to
speak forthrightly about Israel’s violations of
international law and to call for accountability.</p>
<p>If Israel expels Gunness and is met with impunity and
silence by the UN and world governments, it would be the
first clear sign that the resolution passed on Friday is
indeed toothless.</p>
<p>Outgoing UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon <a
href="http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=55874">hailed</a>
the resolution, but standing up to Israel’s bullying
will likely be the first major test for his successor <a
href="http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=55781">António
Guterres</a>, who takes over the helm at UN
headquarters on 1 January.</p>
<p>The spokesperson for Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon did
not immediately return a request for comment.</p>
<h2>Vitriolic</h2>
<p>Israel is also threatening to punish the world by
withholding its supposedly superior technologies.</p>
<p>“The era is over in which countries benefit from
Israeli know-how in high-tech, in security and so on,
and from the prestige of a visit to Israel and
involvement in the Middle East without providing
diplomatic repayment,” Dani Dayan, Israel’s
consul-general in New York and a former leader in the
West Bank settler movement <a
href="http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/1.761514">tweeted</a>.</p>
<p>Sami Peretz, a commentator for the Tel Aviv newspaper <em>Haaretz</em>
ridiculed Dayan’s statement, <a
href="http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/1.761514">warning</a>
that limiting exports “would be much, much worse than
any harm ever caused by the BDS movement.”</p>
<p>Israel has been particularly vindictive toward New
Zealand and Senegal, which co-sponsored the resolution
along with Malaysia and Venezuela.</p>
<p><em>Haaretz</em> reported that New Zealand <a
href="http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.761706">acted</a>
with strong backing from the UK, and despite Netanyahu’s
threats to its foreign minister Murray McCully that
advancing the resolution would be tantamount to a
“declaration of war.”</p>
<p>Netanyahu ordered the cancellation of aid projects in
Senegal, including a drip-irrigation project that Israel
marketed as part of the “<a
href="http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4603023,00.html">fight
against poverty in Africa</a>” – a fight that is
apparently only worth engaging in if it suits Israel’s
propaganda priorities.</p>
<p>But the most vitriolic response has been reserved for
Israel’s closest allies and benefactors.</p>
<p>Echoing Netanyahu <a
href="http://www.cnn.com/2016/12/25/politics/israel-un-settlements-netanyahu-ambassadors/">himself</a>,
Ambassador Dermer has been <a
href="http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/1.761470">touring
television studios</a> personally accusing President
Obama of being behind the “ganging up” on Israel at the
UN – something the US administration vehemently denies.</p>
<p>Notably, however, Israel has not shown the courage of
its convictions by refusing the <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/rania-khalek/obama-hands-israel-largest-military-aid-deal-history">record-breaking
$38-billion military aid package</a> Obama recently
agreed to give it.</p>
<p>Israeli defense minister Avigdor Lieberman <a
href="http://www.timesofisrael.com/france-rejects-libermans-comparison-of-upcoming-peace-summit-to-dreyfus-affair/">likened</a>
France’s efforts to hold an international conference in
coming weeks to build on the UN resolution to the
Dreyfus Affair, the notorious 19th century trial and
persecution of a French military officer that is seen as
a seminal example of modern European anti-Semitism.</p>
<h2>“Ridiculous”</h2>
<p>Netanyahu is <a
href="http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/1.761470">defending</a>
his measures as “a wise, aggressive and responsible
reaction, a natural response that makes it clear to the
nations of the world that what took place at the UN is
unacceptable to us.”</p>
<p>But his reaction is causing disquiet even among
hardline supporters of Israel’s anti-Palestinian
policies.</p>
<p>Dov Weisglass, a former senior advisor to the late
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is notorious for <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/israels-starvation-diet-gaza/11810">saying</a>
a decade ago that Israel would restrict food to Gaza “to
put the Palestinians on a diet, but not to make them die
of hunger.”</p>
<p>Now Weisglass is calling Netanyahu’s reaction to the UN
resolution “ridiculous.”</p>
<p>“The attempt to create symmetry between us and the rest
of the world and to punish the 14 countries that voted
against us is actually making the Palestinian dream of
isolating Israel internationally into reality,”
Weisglass <a
href="http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Politics-And-Diplomacy/Netanyahu-response-to-UN-vote-isolating-Israel-Ariel-Sharon-confidant-says-476650">said</a>.</p>
<p>Tzipi Hotovely, Israel’s deputy foreign minister, also
expressed misgivings. She argued that rather than
canceling diplomatic visits, Israel would be better off
trying to explain its position to the world.</p>
<p>“We need to get rid of this false term, the phrase
‘occupied territory.’ This is Israel’s territory — the
Land of Israel,” Hotovely <a
href="http://www.timesofisrael.com/deputy-fm-questions-pms-diplomatic-embargos-after-un-vote/">said</a>
in reference to the West Bank.</p>
<p>Hotovely may not have noticed that Israel has been
trying to do that for decades, with elaborate marketing
and propaganda schemes. The vote in the UN showed that
all Israel’s efforts to convince the world that it has
the right to steal as much Palestinian land as it
pleases have come to nought.</p>
<p>Experience shows, however, that it is Palestinians who
will feel the real brunt of Israel’s revenge: Israel is
already <a
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/26/world/middleeast/israel-settlements-un-security-council-benjamin-netanyahu-obama.html">vowing</a>
to build thousands more settler homes on Palestinian
land in direct defiance of international law.</p>
<p>The question is whether world governments, having
provoked Israel’s rage, will have the courage at last to
hold it accountable.</p>
<br>
</article>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div> </div>
</div>
<div class="moz-signature">-- <br>
Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
415 863.9977
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.freedomarchives.org">www.freedomarchives.org</a>
</div>
</body>
</html>