Palestine resolution submitted to U.N. Security Council
Published December 18, 2014
JERUSALEM (JTA) — A Palestinian resolution calling for an Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem by the end of 2017 was submitted to the United Nations Security Council.
Jordan on Wednesday submitted the draft resolution on behalf of the Palestinians. A vote could come as early as Thursday afternoon, though it is more likely that the 15-member council will negotiate to come up with a text that is acceptable to most members, including the United States.
The resolution calls for peace between Israel and the Palestinians within one year and says that a negotiated peace should be based on the 1967 borders with Jerusalem as a shared capital. It also calls for a halt to construction in the settlements.
Nine votes are needed to pass a resolution. The resolution can be vetoed by the five permanent members of the Security Council – China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Israel and the Palestinians both have spoken to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry about its veto.
Three European states – France, Britain and Germany – also are drafting a Palestine resolution, which calls for the end of peace talks and a final peace agreement in two years.
Israel’s Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman on Thursday called the proposal a “Palestinian gimmick.”
“Certainly this will not hasten an agreement because without Israel’s consent, nothing will change,” Lieberman said in a statement.
Liberman also questioned why the Security Council is “wasting time” on the proposal when it should be dealing with this week’s attacks in Australia and Pakistan, or discussing the deadly civil war in Syria.