S/PV.8138 Security Council

In accordance with rule 39 of the Council’s provisional rules of procedure, I invite Mr. Nickolay Mladenov, Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process and Personal Representative of the Secretary-General, to participate in this meeting. The Security Council will now begin its consideration of the item on its agenda. I give the floor to Mr. Mladenov. Mr. Mladenov: On behalf of the Secretary-General, I devote my regular briefing on the situation in the Middle East today to presenting the fourth report on the implementation of resolution 2334 (2016), covering the period from 20 September to 18 December. I will focus on developments on the ground in accordance with the provisions of the resolution, including on regional and international efforts to advance the peace process. Let me note from the outset that none of the developments on the ground can be divorced from the broader context in which they are happening: uncertainties about the future of the peace process, unilateral actions that undermine the two-State solution, occupation and violence. As 23 December will mark one year since the adoption of the resolution, I will also take this opportunity to address some of the broader trends we have witnessed during the past year. In its paragraph 2, the resolution reiterates its demand that Israel “immediately and completely cease all settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem”. No such steps were taken during the reporting period. Some 1,200 units in the occupied West Bank were approved for construction, approximately 460 of them in the settlement of Ma’ale Adumim. Israel also advanced, through the various stages of the planning process, some 1,400 housing units in Area C of the West Bank. Plans promoted included units in the new settlement of Amihai, a new neighbourhood in Kochav Yaakov, and a new site near Alon Shvut, north and south of Jerusalem, respectively. All three have been designated for either those evicted from the “illegal outposts” of Migron in 2012 and Amona in February of this year, or those soon to be evicted from the outpost of Netiv ha’avot, which has been planned for demolition and evacuation in March 2018. In October, the Government announced that it would issue a tender for 296 housing units in the Beit El settlement, adjacent to Ramallah. However, that tender has not yet been published. The authorities also conditionally approved building permits for 31 housing units in Hebron’s H2 area, the first such approvals since 2001. In East Jerusalem, preparations began for the construction of infrastructure in Givat Hamatos, which, if built, would solidify the ring of settlements isolating East Jerusalem from the southern West Bank. In October, the Jerusalem municipality conditionally approved building permits for 168 housing units in the settlement of Nof Zion located in the Palestinian neighbourhood of Jabel Mukaber; and in November, it also granted building permits for at least 418 housing units in Gilo and Ramat Shlomo. Let me reiterate that the United Nations considers all settlement activities to be illegal under international law and a major obstacle to peace. As the Middle East Quartet report noted in 2016, all structures lacking permits from the Israeli authorities in Area C and East Jerusalem are potentially subject to demolition. According to the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, during the reporting period the authorities demolished or seized 61 structures for lacking building permits. Consequently, 110 people, including 61 children, were displaced and the livelihoods of over 1,000 people were affected. Meanwhile, over 10 Bedouin communities, comprising some 1,500 residents, remain at heightened risk of demolition and displacement. This includes herding communities in Ain al-Hilwe and Um a1-Jmal in the northern Jordan valley, as well as Jabal al-Baba in the sensitive El area. The reporting period also saw several potentially significant legal developments. In an opinion issued in November, the Attorney General approved the legalization of an access road built on private Palestinian land, leading to the illegal outpost of Haresha. The opinion came in light of a court decision by Supreme Court Justice Salim Joubran, who determined that the confiscation of private Palestinian land for the public interest, including in the exclusive interest of settler communities, may under certain conditions be legal in the West Bank, if done proportionally and with fair compensations to the landowners. However, the Attorney General did not soften his stance on the Land Regularization Law. On 22 November, he wrote that “there is no alternative to a judicial ruling declaring the Land Regularization Law unconstitutional”. Separately, and still in November, the Government informed the Court that, for the first time, it intended to implement a clause in military law allowing the confiscation of private land if it has been used by a third party unknowingly. This may clear the way for the retroactive legalization of settlement homes and possibly illegal outposts. Allow me to turn to the problems of violence and terrorism that remain a hallmark of the conflict. During the reporting period, the security situation in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory remained relatively calm. During the past three months, 22 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli security forces, including in clashes and security operations, and one was killed by an Israeli civilian in the West Bank. Four Israelis have been killed by Palestinians in attacks. Last week, Israel reported that it had foiled a kidnapping plot by Hamas in the West Bank. Since 6 December, in the wake of the decision of the United States to recognize Jerusalem as the the capital of Israel, the situation has become more tense, with an increase in incidents, notably rockets fired from Gaza and clashes between Palestinians and Israeli security forces. Most recently, on 10 December one Israeli was seriously injured in a stabbing attack at the Jerusalem bus station. The Palestinian perpetrator has been detained. On 30 October, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) destroyed yet another tunnel that extended from Gaza into Israel. During the operation, at least 12 Palestinian militants were killed underground. According to statements by a spokesperson for Islamic Jihad, the group’s aim in constructing the tunnel was to “kidnap Israeli soldiers”. A second tunnel was destroyed on 10 December. On 31 October, a 25-year-old Palestinian man was shot dead by IDF while in his car near the settlement of Halamish. On 30 November, an Israeli civilian shot dead a Palestinian man in the northern West Bank and a group of Palestinians reportedly threw stones at a group of Israelis. Both shooting incidents are under investigation by Israeli authorities. During the reporting period, 28 rockets and 12 mortar rounds were fired from Gaza towards Israel. In response, the IDF continued to target a number of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad military posts across the Gaza Strip, in which two Palestinian militants and one civilian were killed, and at least 28 people were injured. Since 7 December, there has been a visible increase in rockets fired by Gaza militants. Of the 40 projectiles fired during the reporting period, 27 were launched since Hamas called for an escalation. Four rockets were intercepted by the Iron Dome system. One rocket and the remains of an intercepted rocket landed in the town of Sderot, causing damage to a kindergarten and to vehicles, but resulting in no injuries. At least eight more rockets landed in Israel. Allow me to now turn to some of the problems of inflammatory rhetoric and provocations. Resolution 2334 (2016) calls on all to refrain from such acts and undertake efforts to combat them. During the reporting period, while on a visit to Iran Hamas leaders continued to make deplorable calls for the destruction of the State of Israel. The level of provocative rhetoric has heightened since 6 December, including with calls for escalation, violence and an intifada. On its official social media pages, Fatah continued to celebrate perpetrators of past attacks against Israelis, including a 26 September attack in Har Adar in which two security guards and a border policeman were killed. Most recently, Hamas and other factions applauded the stabbing attack at the Jerusalem bus station, organizing rallies in Gaza and the West Bank and calling for escalation. Israeli politicians also made provocative statements during this period, including by calling for “only one State between the river and the sea” or “recognizing Judea and Samaria as Israel”. Resolution 2334 (2016) reiterates the call by the Middle East Quartet on both parties to take steps to reverse the negative trends on the ground that are imperilling the two-State solution. While the goal of realizing a sustainable peace based on the two-State solution remains elusive, Palestinian factions signed an agreement on 12 October to allow the Palestinian Authority (PA) to assume control of Gaza, the Gaza crossings to be fully returned to the control of the Palestinian Authority on 1 November, and the public sector employees who were recruited by the PA prior to 2007 to be registered in preparation for establishing a unified work force. The process, however, is faltering over substantial disagreements, including on important questions related to the payment of public sector salaries, the lifting of PA-imposed measures and Hamas giving up its security control of Gaza. Despite repeated calls on the Palestinian Authority to alleviate the electricity crisis in Gaza, which was exacerbated by the Palestinian Authority’s decision earlier this year to reduce payments to Israel, residents still live with four hours of electricity per day. Forty- five per cent of essential drugs and medical supplies are at zero stock, while basic services are maintained only through donor-funded emergency fuel that is distributed by the United Nations. On 7 December, an additional $2.2 million was released from the United Nations humanitarian pooled fund to cover urgent health and food security needs in Gaza. On a positive note, talks between the Israeli and Palestinian Ministries of Finance resumed during the reporting period. On 28 November, Israel transferred to the Palestinian Authority a lump sum of $63.8 million in value-added tax collections and tax clearance. Construction of the Northern Gaza emergency sewage treatment plant is expected to be completed by the end of this month. Israel has informed the Palestinian Authority of its willingness to increase the energy supply to Gaza by six megawatts for the plant. If implemented, that would help to address critical sewage and broader environmental problems in Gaza and beyond. During the reporting period, there were no developments related to Member States distinguishing in their relevant dealings between the territory of the State of Israel and the territories occupied in 1967. Regrettably, the reporting period did not see significant positive moves towards advancing peace, and the parties remain further divided than ever. The United States President announced in December his decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of the State of Israel, while stating that final status issues remained to be determined by the parties. He also made clear his commitment to advancing peace between Israelis and Palestinians and called for the status quo at the holy sites to be respected. Since then, the Palestinian leadership has cancelled meetings with visiting United States Vice-President Pence and called for the establishment of a new mechanism to achieve peace. The Palestinian President has also vowed to seek unilateral recognition of Palestine and full membership in international organizations in the absence of a meaningful peace process. The United Nations maintains the view that Jerusalem is a final-status issue that must be resolved through direct negotiations between the two parties on the basis of the relevant Security Council and General Assembly resolutions, taking into account the legitimate concerns of both the Palestinian and the Israeli sides. In closing, I would like to share some broad observations on developments concerning the provisions of the resolution over the past year. First, continued settlement construction in the occupied Palestinian territory contravenes resolution 2334 (2016). Significantly more housing units were advanced and approved this year. The number of units advanced and approved more than doubled from 3,000 in 2016 to nearly 7,000 in 2017. In East Jerusalem, the increase has similarly been from 1,600 in 2016 to 3,100 in 2017. However, the number of tenders published and opened for bidding has decreased this year. In Area C, out of tenders for 3,200 units that were announced this year, only two for some 50 housing units have been published so far. For the first time since 2010, this year in East Jerusalem there have been no new tenders published. About 50 per cent of the settlement moves this year have been concentrated in and around major Israeli population centres, while some 20 per cent have been in outlying locations deep inside the West Bank. The number of Palestinian-owned structures demolished this year in the West Bank is significantly lower than in 2016, and the lowest since 2009. In total, 400 Palestinian-owned structures have been demolished in the West Bank this year, including East Jerusalem  — a sharp decline compared to the more than 1,000 structures demolished in 2016. In addition to those developments, 2017 has seen worrying legislative, judicial and administrative initiatives that aim to change the long-standing Israeli policy concerning the legal status of the West Bank and the use of private Palestinian land. Settlement-related activities undermine the chances for the establishment of a viable, contiguous Palestinian State as part of a two-State solution. Secondly, continuing violence against civilians and incitement perpetuate mutual fear and suspicion. Since the adoption of resolution 2334 (2016), there has been a significant reduction in the number of violent attacks. In 2017, there have been 109 shootings, stabbings, rammings and bombing attacks conducted, compared to 223 similar attacks in 2016. Regarding fatalities, 72 Palestinians and 15 Israelis have been killed this year, compared to 109 and 13, respectively, in 2016. I call on the international community to join the United Nations in condemning terror attacks and such reckless action, which impede any efforts to bridge the gap between Israelis and Palestinians and empower extremists. Nothing — no cause or grievance — justifies terror. The terror threat from Gaza of indiscriminate rocket attacks and tunnel construction continues, and the recent escalation by militants in Gaza is reckless and dangerous. I urge all Palestinian factions to commit to rejecting violence, inflammatory rhetoric and provocative actions that undermine the cause of peace. Israel must also uphold its responsibilities under international human rights and humanitarian law and calibrate its use of force. Thirdly, bringing the legitimate Palestinian National Authority back to Gaza is key to alleviating the humanitarian crisis, lifting the closures and enhancing the prospects for peace. I commend Egypt for its tireless efforts in that respect, and encourage all sides to focus on addressing the devastating humanitarian situation, with an immediate focus on the electricity crisis, and to ensure that agreement is reached on mechanisms to implement the 12 October intra-Palestinian agreement in full. Fourthly, this past year has witnessed important progress in finalizing agreements between Israel and the Palestinian Authority with regard to water, energy, telecommunications and other areas aimed at improving the economic reality of Palestinians. Those efforts are critical to rebuilding trust, and obstacles to their realization must be removed. The United Nations will continue supporting such efforts. Fifthly, I am particularly concerned as to the future of our collective efforts to achieve peace between Israelis and Palestinians. The United Nations remains strongly committed to supporting all endeavours towards a negotiated two-State solution. The Secretary-General has been clear that ending the occupation and realizing a two-State solution, with Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and Palestine, is the only way to achieve such a vision. Today, however, there is a growing risk that the parties may revert to more unilateral actions. In the current environment, the continued absence of a credible proposal that could become the basis of meaningful negotiations is damaging the prospects for peace. The lack of significant steps on the ground that protect the viability of a two-State solution and support Palestinian statehood is undermining moderates and empowering radicals. The weakening of the international architecture in support of peace is increasing the risks to the region. Resolving the conflict will remove a key driver of extremism and terrorism in the Middle East and provide hope to generations of Israelis and Palestinians trapped in a vicious cycle of violence and conflict.

I thank Mr. Mladenov for his briefing. I shall now give the floor those members of the Council who wish to make statements.

In this meeting, I will not use the Council’s time to address where a sovereign nation might decide to put its embassy, and why we have every right to do so. Rather, I will address a more appropriate and urgent concern. This week marks the first anniversary of the adoption of resolution 2334 (2016). On that day in December 2016 (see S/PV.7853), the United States elected to abstain in the voting in the Council, allowing the measure to be adopted. Now it is one year and a new Administration later. Given the chance to vote again on resolution 2334 (2016), I can say with complete confidence that the United States would vote “no”. We would exercise our veto power. The reasons are very relevant to the cause of peace in the Middle East. On the surface, resolution 2334 (2016) described Israeli settlements as impediments to peace. Reasonable people can disagree about that and, in fact, over the years the United States has expressed criticism of Israeli settlement policies many times. But in truth, it was resolution 2334 (2016) itself that was an impediment to peace. The Security Council put the negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians further out of reach by injecting itself yet again in between the two parties to the conflict. By misplacing the blame for the failure of peace efforts squarely on the Israeli settlements, the resolution gave a pass to Palestinian leaders who for many years rejected one peace proposal after another. It also gave them encouragement to avoid negotiations in future. It refused to acknowledge the legacy of failed negotiations unrelated to settlements. Furthermore, the Council passed judgement on issues that must be decided in direct negotiations between the parties. If the United Nations history in the peace efforts proves anything, it is that talking in New York cannot take the place of face-to-face negotiations between the regional parties. It only sets back the cause of peace, not advances it. As if to make that very point, resolution 2334 (2016) demanded a halt to all Israeli settlement activity in East Jerusalem, even in the Jewish quarter of the Old City. That is something that no responsible person or country would ever expect Israel would do and, in that way resolution 2334 (2016) did what President Trump’s announcement on Jerusalem as the capital of Israel did not do — it prejudged issues that should be left to final status negotiations. Given the chance today, the United States would veto resolution 2334 (2016) for another reason. The resolution gave new life to an ugly creation of the Human Rights Council: the database of companies operating in Jewish communities. That is an effort to create a blacklist, plain and simple. It is yet another obstacle to a negotiated peace. It is a stain on America’s conscience that we gave the so-called boycott, divestmen and sanctions movement momentum by allowing the adoption of resolution 2334 (2016). To the United Nations shame, this has been a disproportionately hostile place for the Middle East’s most enduring democracy. The United States refuses to accept the double standard that says we are not impartial when we stand by the will of the American people by moving our United States Embassy; but somehow the United Nations is a neutral party when it consistently singles out Israel for condemnation. For decades, Israel has withstood wave after wave of bias in the United Nations and its agencies. The United States has often stood beside Israel. We did not on 23 December 2016. We will not make that mistake again. This week marks the one-year anniversary of a significant setback for peace in the Middle East peace, but the United States has an undiminished commitment to helping bring about final-status negotiations that will lead to lasting peace. Our hand remains extended to both parties. We call on all countries that share this commitment to learn the hard lessons of the past and work to bring Israel and the Palestinian people to the peace table in good faith.

As we do every month, we once again thank the Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Mr. Nickolay Mladenov, for his very complete and detailed briefing. Above all, we thank him for his work and that of his team, which indicates a seriousness and a commitment to the task entrusted to them that should be justly valued and recognized. He can continue to count on the full support of Uruguay. We appreciate the presentation of the fourth quarterly report on the implementation of resolution 2334 (2016). We reiterate once again, as we have done throughout this year, that, in future, these reports, as well as all other reports submitted to the Security Council concerning issues on its agenda, should be circulated in writing before the meetings, so as to enable Security Council members to analyse and comment in greater detail on their content. With only a few days left before our time as a non-permanent member of the Council comes to end, and this being the last time that Uruguay will make a statement on an issue to which it attaches great importance, and to which it has been commmitted since 1947, when the General Assembly adopted resolution 181 (II), allow me to summarize our position on this question, as well as to discuss our expectations for the future. We hope that the voting to be carried out following this meeting, undoubtedly important, will not detract focus from other matters of great importance in relation to this long and complicated conflict. The year 2017 was one of a number of anniversaries relating to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. It marked a century since the Balfour Declaration, the seventieth anniversary of the adoption of General Assembly resolution 181 (II), which decreed the partition of Palestine, and a half century since the Six-Day War, which resulted in the occupation by Israel of territories in the Middle East. We hope that 2017 will not be remembered as the year in which certain notorious events seriously affected the possibility of reaching a negotiated peace between Israelis and Palestinians and the two-State solution. The voting that will take place today is intended to blot out the negative effects of such measures, and to prevent similar events, caused by other States or by the parties themselves, from being repeated. We express our satisfaction for the fact that so many countries recognize and wish to protect the special status of Jerusalem, which was derived from General Assembly resolution 181 (II), and which several States did not support at the time. Despite numerous multilateral, regional and unilateral initiatives that attempted to put an end to this conflict, we are still a long way from seeing a peaceful and mutually acceptable solution. On 23 December 2016, the Council adopted resolution 2334 (2016) with the intention of noting that certain trends on the ground, including the Israeli settlement policy and violence, were seriously undermining prospects for peace. Nearly one year since that day, which has been qualified as historic, we deeply regret that none of the provisions of the resolution have been respected. The resolutions of the Council, the primary responsibility of which is to maintain international peace and security, must be implemented. We cannot be selective in that respect, that is, demanding compliance with certain resolutions and completely ignoring others. All Security Council resolutions must be respected in order to achieve the proposed end. The two-State solution remains the only viable option to end this conflict. It will be necessary to relaunch, as quickly as possible, bilateral direct negotiations that can clarify all pending issues. Whatever the forum, Uruguay will continue to support all initiatives in that regard. To achieve that goal, it is necessary that current trends on the ground be reversed, including the settlement-construction policy, legal measures to appropriate Palestinian lands, the demolition of housing and forced displacement of communities, including most recently Jabal Al-Baba, Ein Al-Hilweh and Umm El-Jamal. Otherwise, it will be extremely difficult for Palestine to consolidate territorially its State, which is consistently smaller on maps. On another note, maps should be updated and distributed by the Secretariat as often as possible, so as to reflect the Israeli settlements and outposts that are still being constructed in the West Bank and in Jerusalem. Uruguay maintains strong ties of friendship with both the State of Israel and the State of Palestine. We underscore once again the right of Israel and of Palestine to live in peace, within secure and recognized borders and in an environment of renewed cooperation, free from any threat or act that interferes with peace. The Fatah and Hamas reconciliation agreement, signed in October in Cairo, and the recent return of the Palestinian Authority to the Gaza Strip to regain control after a decade are undoubtedly important steps to achieve Palestinian unity. The reunification of Palestine under a single, legitimate and democratic Government is essential to be able to work towards the aspirations of the Palestinian people and make it possible to improve the living conditions in that area, which has been submerged in a serious humanitarian crisis since the 2007 armed conflict. In order for that agreement to be successfully implemented, it will also be essential that those measures be accompanied by agreements on security, the disarmament of Hamas and the renunciation of violence, the incitement and glorification of violence and the destruction of Israel as a declared objective. Likewise, the obstinate non-recognition of Israel as a State by several countries in the region is a wholly negative sign for a favourable climate for the peace process. In that still very complex scenario, although with some signs of hope, it is necessary more than ever that the Security Council and the entire international community remain united in their desire to see a peaceful resolution, in all its aspects, of the Israeli- Palestinian conflict. Only in that way can we exert due pressure on the Israeli and Palestinian authorities to stop the trends that jeopardize the process and ask them to be sufficiently flexible and reasonable to understand at last that peace is a much more valuable objective than the violence, hatred and injustice that have characterized the region over recent decades. In conclusion, I would like to recall that Uruguay has presented its candidature to once again become a non-permanent member of the Security Council, for the period 2034-2035. We hope that, by that date, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will be part of history, and both peoples will finally be able to live together in peace and security, without grudges and with equal opportunities for the development and well-being of future generations.

We thank Mr. Nickolay Mladenov, Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process and Personal Representative of the Secretary-General, for his presentation of the fourth and final report of the year on the implementation of the provisions of resolution 2334 (2016). We would mention that, among other things, the resolution refers to the legal invalidity and flagrant violation of international law of the establishment of settlements by Israel in the occupied Palestinian territories since 1967, including East Jerusalem. This is the fourth time in 12 months that the delegation of Bolivia has attended such an important meeting as this on resolution 2234 (2016), which, on 23 December, it will be one year since its adoption. We note that in that time little or nothing has been achieved in its implementation. We reiterate our appeal that the quarterly report of the Secretary-General on the implementation of resolution 2334 (2016) be presented in written format and prior to the Council’s briefings thereon, with a view to conducting a more thorough analysis of its content and the statistics on the settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories, such as those that were presented today. Contrary to expectations, we take note of the Secretary-General’s report (A/72/564) from 1 November presented before the General Assembly entitled, “Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and the Occupied Syrian Golan”, which mentions that the Office of the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process reported that, during the first six months of the year, plans have been advanced for approximately 5,000 housing units through the Israeli planning bodies in the occupied Palestinian territories. We are concerned about the forced evictions that several Palestinian communities faced, during which their inhabitants endured the demolition of their homes. We must point out that those actions constitute a manifest violation of human rights, including the rights to adequate housing, water, sanitation, health and education. My delegation wishes to refer to General Assembly resolution 181 (II), adopted in 1947, as part III, in reference to the special regime of the city of Jerusalem, provides that the City of Jerusalem shall be established as a corpus separatum under a special international regime. Recent events, especially since 6 December, when the Government of the United States of America unilaterally recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, are in clear violation of the relevant General Assembly and Security Council resolutions. The decision has led only to an escalation of violence in the region. We wish to recall that it was the Organization that established the special international status for the city of Jerusalem, under the administrative authority of the United Nations. Similarly, it was the Security Council that reiterated that all measures that altered the geographical, demographic and historical character of the city of Jerusalem are null and void and should have no effect. We express our firm commitment to all international efforts that lead to a peaceful solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In that regard, we support initiatives such as the Quartet road map, the Madrid principles, the Arab Peace Initiative and others that constitute guarantees for a just and lasting peace so that both peoples can live within secure and recognized borders. Bolivia remains convinced that the two-State solution continues to be the only long-term alternative for a solution to the conflict — where at last there is a free, sovereign and independent Palestinian State within the pre-1967 international borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital and in accordance with the relevant resolutions of the Security Council and of the General Assembly.

There are no more names inscribed on the list of speakers. I now invite Council members to informal consultations to continue our discussion of the subject.