Mockery of Peace

The US was the only country that vetoed the resolution on Thursday. Britain and Switzerland abstained while 12 countries in the 15-member body voted in favor. 

Palestinians came down hard on Washington for vetoing the resolution. 

The Palestinian UN Ambassador said, “The fact that this resolution did not pass will not break our will and it will not defeat our determination.”

“We will not stop in our effort. The state of Palestine is inevitable. It is real. Perhaps they see it as far away, but we see it as near,” Riyad Mansour told the council after the vote.

The office of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas also lashed out at Washington, describing its veto as “unfair, unethical and unjustified”. It described the US move as “blatant aggression … which pushes the region ever further to the edge of the abyss”.

The Palestinian resistance groups also weighed in on, with Hamas condemning the US for denying Palestinians full membership in the UN. It urged the international community to “support the struggle of our Palestinian people and their legitimate right to determine their destiny.”

Condemnation also poured in from countries around the world.

“US completely isolated”

 The Russian ambassador to the UN accused the US of turning a blind eye to the “crimes of Israel” against civilians in Gaza, as well as the continuation of the illegal settlement activity in the occupied West Bank by exercising its veto. 

Vassily Nebenzia added, “Today’s use of the veto by the US delegation is a hopeless attempt to stop the inevitable course of history. The results of the vote, where Washington was practically in complete isolation, speak for themselves.”

“Gangster logic”

China's ambassador to the United Nations said it "is very disappointed" with the United States' veto of a Palestinian request for full UN membership in the Security Council.     
Fu Cong also slammed Israel’s expansionist policy in the West Bank. 

"The situation in Palestine has undergone many changes in the past 13 years, the most fundamental of which is the continuous expansion of settlements in the West Bank. The living space of Palestine as a country has been continuously squeezed, and the foundation of the two-state solution has been continuously eroded.”

The Chinese ambassador added, "Relevant countries turned a blind eye to this, adopted an attitude of acquiescence or even connivance, and now they are questioning Palestine's ability to govern. This is completely gangster logic that confuses right and wrong," Fu said.

His comments were a reference to remarks made by the US and Israeli UN envoys who tried to justify Washington’s veto of the Security Council resolution. 

UN representatives and officials of some other countries also made blistering attacks on the US for quashing efforts which would have paved the way for full United Nations membership for Palestine.

The Algerian UN ambassador, whose country introduced the resolution, called Palestine’s admission “a critical step toward rectifying a longstanding injustice.” Amar Bendjama noted that “peace will come from Palestine’s inclusion, not from its exclusion.”

The United States, Israel’s main political and military backer, has never hesitated to use its veto to protect the regime. 

Speaking at Thursday’s Security Council session, US Deputy Ambassador Robert Wood said the veto “does not reflect opposition to Palestinian statehood but instead is an acknowledgment that it will only come from direct negotiations between the parties.”

A representative of the Palestinian Authority, Ziad Abu Amr, fired sharp barbs at the US envoy for his remarks. 

He said Israel itself had been established through a UN resolution, not through negotiations. 

Abu Amr was referring to Resolution 181 that was approved in 1947 and had called for a Palestine state to be partitioned into a Jewish state and an Arab state. 

Wood’s comments have, in fact, thrown a spotlight on US duplicity and double-dealing. 

On one hand, the US expresses commitment to the so-called two-state solution, and on the other, it blocks efforts aimed at establishing an independent Palestinian state.  

The US claims that an independent Palestinian state can be established through talks with Israel. 

Since Israel and the Palestinian Authority signed the US-mediated Oslo Accords in 1993, no progress has been made on achieving Palestinian statehood.  

Talks between the Palestinian Authority and Israel have yielded no results for the Palestinians who have been suffering from occupation for decades. 

In fact, the two-state solution has been a smokescreen for Israel to press on with its land grab policy in the occupied West Bank. Israel has dramatically expanded its illegal settlements in the West Bank to make way for settlers to occupy more Palestinian lands.  

Since Israel began its genocidal war on Gaza on October 7, the US had doubled down on efforts to move toward the two-state solution. 

But, it is crystal clear that Washington’s move has been aimed at diverting attention from Israel’s genocidal war against the besieged Palestinian territory, which has claimed the lives of more than 34,000 Palestinians. 

Thursday’s vote at the Security Council showed that support for Palestinian statehood is growing across the globe. Washington’s sole vote against the resolution also indicated that it is becoming more isolated in the world, a comment that was reiterated by the Russian ambassador at the Security Council. 

The blocking of the resolution that would have recognized a Palestinian state has further brought shame on the international community which has failed to take practical measures to stop Israel’s decades-long occupation, genocide, and ethnic cleansing of Palestinian people.