2016-12-29. Anti-racist Jews back UNSC Resolution 2334

[First published as Gideon Polya, “Anti-racist Jews back UNSC Resolution 2334”, MWC News, 29 December 2016].

Anti-racist Jews back UNSC Resolution 2334

By Gideon Polya

On 23 December 2016, the United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 2334 (2016) with a vote of 14 to 0, with the racist, pro-Zionist, pro-Apartheid US Obama Administration remarkably failing to veto and recording an abstention. The UN Security Council Resolution 2334 could have been much stronger by explicitly condemning the 49-year Apartheid Israeli Occupation of the Occupied Palestinian Territory but it nevertheless condemned other Israeli crimes in the Palestinian Territory that are in gross violation of international law. Decent anti-racist Jewish and non-Jewish humanitarians around the world will hope that UNSC Resolution 2334 is the beginning of the end for Apartheid Israel and for Apartheid in general. .

The full text of UNSC Resolution 2334 (2016) reads as follows:

“The Security Council,

“Reaffirming its relevant resolutions, including resolutions 242 (1967), 338 (1973), 446 (1979), 452 (1979), 465 (1980), 476 (1980), 478 (1980), 1397 (2002), 1515 (2003), and 1850 (2008),

“Guided by the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations, and reaffirming, inter alia, the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by force,

“Reaffirming the obligation of Israel, the occupying Power, to abide scrupulously by its legal obligations and responsibilities under the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949, and recalling the advisory opinion rendered on 9 July 2004 by the International Court of Justice,

“Condemning all measures aimed at altering the demographic composition, character and status of the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem, including, inter alia, the construction and expansion of settlements, transfer of Israeli settlers, confiscation of land, demolition of homes and displacement of Palestinian civilians, in violation of international humanitarian law and relevant resolutions,

“Expressing grave concern that continuing Israeli settlement activities are dangerously imperilling the viability of the two-State solution based on the 1967 lines,

“Recalling the obligation under the Quartet Roadmap, endorsed by its resolution 1515 (2003), for a freeze by Israel of all settlement activity, including “natural growth”, and the dismantlement of all settlement outposts erected since March 2001,

“Recalling also the obligation under the Quartet roadmap for the Palestinian Authority Security Forces to maintain effective operations aimed at confronting all those engaged in terror and dismantling terrorist capabilities, including the confiscation of illegal weapons,

“Condemning all acts of violence against civilians, including acts of terror, as well as all acts of provocation, incitement and destruction,

“Reiterating its vision of a region where two democratic States, Israel and Palestine, live side by side in peace within secure and recognized borders,

“Stressing that the status quo is not sustainable and that significant steps, consistent with the transition contemplated by prior agreements, are urgently needed in order to (i) stabilize the situation and to reverse negative trends on the ground, which are steadily eroding the two-State solution and entrenching a one-State reality, and (ii) to create the conditions for successful final status negotiations and for advancing the two-State solution through those negotiations and on the ground,

“1. Reaffirms that the establishment by Israel of settlements in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem, has no legal validity and constitutes a flagrant violation under international law and a major obstacle to the achievement of the two-State solution and a just, lasting and comprehensive peace;

“2. Reiterates its demand that Israel immediately and completely cease all settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem, and that it fully respect all of its legal obligations in this regard;

“3. Underlines that it will not recognize any changes to the 4 June 1967 lines, including with regard to Jerusalem, other than those agreed by the parties through negotiations;

“4. Stresses that the cessation of all Israeli settlement activities is essential for salvaging the two-State solution, and calls for affirmative steps to be taken immediately to reverse the negative trends on the ground that are imperilling the two-State solution;

“5. Calls upon all States, bearing in mind paragraph 1 of this resolution, to distinguish, in their relevant dealings, between the territory of the State of Israel and the territories occupied since 1967;

“6. Calls for immediate steps to prevent all acts of violence against civilians, including acts of terror, as well as all acts of provocation and destruction, calls for accountability in this regard, and calls for compliance with obligations under international law for the strengthening of ongoing efforts to combat terrorism, including through existing security coordination, and to clearly condemn all acts of terrorism;

“7. Calls upon both parties to act on the basis of international law, including international humanitarian law, and their previous agreements and obligations, to observe calm and restraint, and to refrain from provocative actions, incitement and inflammatory rhetoric, with the aim, inter alia, of de-escalating the situation on the ground, rebuilding trust and confidence, demonstrating through policies and actions a genuine commitment to the two-State solution, and creating the conditions necessary for promoting peace;

“8. Calls upon all parties to continue, in the interest of the promotion of peace and security, to exert collective efforts to launch credible negotiations on all final status issues in the Middle East peace process and within the time frame specified by the Quartet in its statement of 21 September 2010;

“9. Urges in this regard the intensification and acceleration of international and regional diplomatic efforts and support aimed at achieving, without delay a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the Middle East on the basis of the relevant United Nations resolutions, the Madrid terms of reference, including the principle of land for peace, the Arab Peace Initiative and the Quartet Roadmap and an end to the Israeli occupation that began in 1967; and underscores in this regard the importance of the ongoing efforts to advance the Arab Peace Initiative, the initiative of France for the convening of an international peace conference, the recent efforts of the Quartet, as well as the efforts of Egypt and the Russian Federation;

“10. Confirms its determination to support the parties throughout the negotiations and in the implementation of an agreement;

“11. Reaffirms its determination to examine practical ways and means to secure the full implementation of its relevant resolutions;

“12. Requests the Secretary-General to report to the Council every three months on the implementation of the provisions of the present resolution;

“13. Decides to remain seized of the matter” (see United Nations, “Israel’s settlements have no legal validity, constitute flagrant violations of international law, Security Council reaffirms. 14 delegations in favour of Resolution 2334 as United States abstains”, 23 December 2016).

The UN Security Council (UNSC) has 5 Permanent Members ( China, France, Russian Federation, the United Kingdom and the United States) and 10 non-permanent members elected for two-year terms by the General Assembly, namely (with end of term date indicated in brackets): Angola (2016), Egypt (2017), Japan (2017), Malaysia (2016), New Zealand (2016), Senegal (2017), Spain (2016), Ukraine (2017), Uruguay (2017), and Venezuela (2016). The racist, pro-Zionist, pro-Apartheid US failed to veto Resolution 2334 and merely abstained, but the remaining UNSC members unanimously supported UNSC Resolution 2334.

The UNSC Resolution 2334 ignored the crime of the near-half century Occupation but at least spelled out the egregious violations of international law associated with that Occupation. To that extent UNSC Resolution 2334 is a game changer. The ongoing Palestinian Genocide has now been recognized 14 to 0 by the UN Security Council, if not with explicit use of that terminology, by “Condemning all measures aimed at altering the demographic composition, character and status of the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem, including, inter alia, the construction and expansion of settlements, transfer of Israeli settlers, confiscation of land, demolition of homes and displacement of Palestinian civilians, in violation of international humanitarian law and relevant resolutions”.

Article 2 of the UN Genocide Convention states that :“In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, as such: a) Killing members of the group; b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group”. Apartheid Israel is guilty of violating all these elements of the UN Genocide Convention as well as other UN conventions: (1) since 1936 there have been 2 million Palestinian deaths from Zionist violence (0.1 million) or Zionist-imposed deprivation (1.9 million ); (2) there are 7 million Palestinian refugees and all of the 12 million Palestinians are excluded from all or part of Palestine; (3) of 12 million Palestinians (half of them children), 6 million are forbidden to even step foot in their own country, 4.7 million are highly abusively and violently held hostage with zero human rights under Israeli guns in the Gaza Concentration Camp (2.0 million) or in ever-dwindling West Bank Bantustan ghettoes (2.7 million), and 1.7 million live as Third Class citizens as Israeli Palestinians under Nazi-style Apartheid Israeli race laws; (4) 90% of Palestine has now been ethnically cleansed of Indigenous Palestinian inhabitants; (5) the huge disparity in “GDP per capita” between Occupied Palestinians ($2,800) and Israel-proper ($38,000) is reflected in huge differential annual avoidable mortality of over 4,000 avoidable deaths per year for Occupied Palestinians versus zero (0) for Israelis; (6) through imposed deprivation, each year Apartheid Israel passively murders about 2,700 under-5 year old Palestinian infants and passively murders 4,200 Occupied Palestinians in general; (7) Apartheid Israel violently kills an average of about 500 Occupied Palestinians each year; and (8) Occupied Palestinians are deprived of essentially all human rights by Apartheid Israel, of which the most fundamental is the right to live unmolested in their own country

For anti-racist Jews and indeed all anti-racist humanitarians the core moral messages from the Jewish Holocaust (5-6 million dead, 1 in 6 dying from deprivation) and from the more general WW2 European Holocaust (30 million Slav, Jewish and Gypsy dead) are “zero tolerance for racism”, “never again to anyone”, “bear witness” and “zero tolerance for lying”. Accordingly, all decent folk must bear witness to the appalling maltreatment of Indigenous Palestinians by Apartheid Israel. Outstanding anti-racist Jewish American scholar Professor Jared Diamond in his best-selling book "Collapse” (Prologue, p10, Penguin edition) has enunciated the "moral principle, namely that it is morally wrong for one people to dispossess, subjugate, or exterminate another people" – an injunction grossly violated by racist Zionist (RZ)-run Apartheid Israel and its racist, genocide-committing and genocide-ignoring US Alliance backers.

A quick search of the Web has revealed the following anti-racist Jewish responses to UN Security Council Resolution 2334 in December 2016:

Gilad Atzmon (anti-racist, Jewish Israeli-origin UK writer and musician): “On 23 December the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) voted to adopt a resolution condemning Israeli settlement activity as illegal, and demanding that Israel "immediately and completely cease all settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territory, including east Jerusalem". For once, the USA decided to join the rest of humanity and didn’t veto the resolution. The message is obvious: if Zionism was a promise to make the Jews people like other people, its failure is colossal. The Jewish State and its lobbies are people like no other. 14 out of 15 members of the UNSC voted against Israel, the US abstained. In the most clear terms, the UNSC denounced the Jewish state’s treatment of the Palestinian people. If Israel would be an ordinary state, as Zionism initially promised, it would take some time to reflect on the resolution and consider the necessary measures to amend its public image. But as one would expect, the Jewish State did the complete opposite. It took the path of the bully and decided to punish the world… If the One (Bi-National) State is an existential threat to Israel being the Jewish state, then the recent UN resolution is obviously a last attempt to revive the Two-State Solution. It, de facto, legitimises the existence of the Jewish State within the pre-1967 borders. The resolution provides Israel with a practical and pragmatic opportunity to dissolve the West Bank settlements… in practice he [Netanyahu] knows that the resolution is essential for the existence of the Jewish state. It is probably the last opportunity to scale down the pretentious Zionist dream and make it fit with the reality on the ground. Let me reassure you, I don't hold my breath. In reality it is actually the Israelis who don't miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity” (Gilad Atzmon, “UN Resolution 2334 is good for Israel”, Gilad Atzmon, 25 December 2016).

Haaretz (progressive, anti-racist Jewish Israeli newspaper): “United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334, passed on Friday by a majority of 14 of the 15 council members, should be seen as the continuation of the tradition of decisions from 1967 and 1973, resolutions 242 and 338, which state the principle that the occupation of territory is unacceptable. Israel is viewed, in all these resolutions, as holding territories only for as long as there are no Arab sides willing to trade them for peace; and in any case, within the framework of a peace agreement, it must return them. Though there will be no immediate practical implications for Israel, the resolution, and in particular the United State’s decision not to cast its veto, are a ringing slap in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s face. The hysterical response from his bureau – “Israel rejects the contemptible, anti-Israel UN resolution and will not subordinate itself to it,” like the plan to impose sanctions against some of the countries who pushed the resolution – must be seen as part of Netanyahu’s campaign of destruction. He is leading Israel into the abyss of international isolation, and expressing contempt for anyone who dares demand that he stops the settlement enterprise, which casts a heavy shadow over any future possibility for the two-state solution” (Haaretz editorial, “Saving Israel from itself”, Haaretz, 25 December 2016 ).

Stephen Lendman (anti-racist, Jewish American writer):“Israeli settlements and occupation of Palestine are flagrantly illegal. Friday’s Security Council Resolution 2334 affirmed the former. Action on the latter should follow, despite no UN enforcement authority to change things on the ground. Even so, Palestinians are joyous over Friday’s vote, Israeli officials hysterical. Netanyahu called Obama hostile to Israel, ludicrously accusing him of “a shameful anti-Israeli ambush”… Fascist, zionist lunatics run Israel, a pariah state” (Stephen Lendman, “Israel hysterical over Security Council put-down”, SteveLendmanBlog, 25 December 2016 ).

Mark LeVine (anti-racist Jewish American professor of history at UC Irvine, distinguished visiting professor at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Lund University, a contributing editor at Tikkun, and author of numerous books, including the just published “Struggle and Survival in Palestine/Israel”, co-edited with Gershon Shafir): “There are several reasons why it [Resolution 2334] in fact has some very deep teeth, if they haven’t been that exposed yet. Some of these teeth are contained in the Resolution itself, which once and for all puts to the lie any possible Israeli claim that it has the legal right to indefinitely occupy, never mind build settlements upon, any square meter of the territory it conquered in 1967. Specifically, Article 1 of the Resolution’s text (crucially not part of the preamble, which has less direct legal force) “reaffirms that the establishment by Israel of settlements in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem, has no legal validity and constitutes a flagrant violation under international law and a major obstacle to the achievement of the two-State solution and a just, lasting and comprehensive peace.” … What this means is that the emerging generation of progressive Jews no longer has to choose between progressive values on the one hand, and the Jewish community establishment and Israel on the other. The establishment has made the choice for them, and as we’ve seen with the emergence of groups like Open Hillel, the new generation will not fall into the pro-Occupation line. The coalition of the future, the one that will not only heal American Judaism (and ultimately, Israeli Judaism as well), but help restore a progressive politics against the chauvinism and fascism of Trump and his minions, is now clear and is for once the same on both the domestic and foreign policy arenas. Security Council Resolution 2334 makes one final point to the world, which has implications far beyond Israel/Palestine: Human rights and international law can still matter — if they’re allowed to function as they were intended (Mark LeVine, “Why Security Council Resolution 2334 matters a lot more than we think”, Scoop, 28 December 2016).

Gideon Levy (anti-racist Jewish Israeli writer for progressive Israeli newspaper Haaretz): “On November 29, 1947, the UN General Assembly voted to establish a Jewish state (alongside an Arab state) in the Land of Israel. Sixty-nine years later, on December 23, 2016, the UN Security Council voted to try to save it. Resolution 2334 that was approved Friday is a gust of good news, a breath of hope in the sea of darkness and despair of recent years… This decision has brought Israel back to the solid ground of reality. All the settlements, including in the territories that have been annexed, including in East Jerusalem of course, are a violation of international law. In other words, they are a crime. No country in the world thinks otherwise. The entire world thinks so – all Israel’s so-called friends and all its so-called enemies – unanimously… Resolution 2334 artificially distinguishes between Israel and the settlements in that it is aimed at the settlements, not the occupation. As if the guilt of [illegal West Bank Zionist settlement outpost] Amona were on its settlers and not all Israelis. This deception proves how much the world continues to treat Israel with leniency and hesitates to takes steps against it… But two questions won’t let up: Why don’t the Palestinians deserve exactly the same thing that Israelis deserve, and how much can one country, with all its lobbying power, weapons and high-tech, ignore the entire world? (Gideon Levy, “UN resolution is a breath of hope in a sea of darkness and despair”, Haaretz, 26 December 2016 ).

Mitchell Plitnick (anti-racist Jewish American vice president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace, former director of the US Office of B’Tselem, The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, and previously the director of education and policy for Jewish Voice for Peace): “The resolution [UNSC 2334] makes it clear to Israel that the world, including many of its most important allies and trading partners, is united in both its support of Israel’s existence and security and its opposition to Israel’s settlement program. If the Netanyahu government believes it can supplant its trade and other ties with Europe, should they be diminished due to Israel’s ongoing settlement activities, by turning to Russia, China and other Eastern countries, this resolution demonstrates that they too will distinguish between Israel and its settlements. … The resolution establishes that nothing that has happened in the past fifty years of Israeli occupation mitigates the illegality of Israel establishing unilaterally establishing facts on the ground in occupied territory over which it has no recognized sovereignty. That could lead to sanctions or criminal charges against Israeli leaders should the international community decide to pursue such a course. Did the United States betray its commitment to protect Israel at the United Nations by abstaining from this vote? Absolutely not. Every president since 1967 has allowed UNSC resolutions critical of Israel to pass. Indeed, with less than one month remaining in his administration, Barack Obama was poised to become the first U.S. president not to do so. In fact, Obama did more to protect Israel from international action at the Security Council even for clear violations than any of his predecessors” (Mitchell Plitnick, “Understanding the UN settlements resolution”, LobeLog, 27 December 2016 ).

Gideon Polya (anti-racist Jewish-Hungarian-origin Australian scientist, writer, artist and humanitarian activist): “Resolution 2334 (2016) of the UN Security Council condemning Israeli atrocities in the Palestinian Territory in gross violation of international law was passed unanimously 14-0 on 23 December 2016, with the pro-Zionist US Obama Administration failing to veto and recording an unprincipled abstention. Hopefully UNSC Resolution 2334 is the beginning of the end for Apartheid Israel… Point 11 of Resolution 2334 of the UNSC “Reaffirms its determination to examine practical ways and means to secure the full implementation of its relevant resolutions”. Decent anti-racist people around the word must urgently (a) inform everyone they can about the horrendous crimes of Apartheid Israel; (b) urge and apply Boycotts. Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Apartheid Israel and all the people, politicians, parties, countries, companies and corporations complicit in the racist Zionist Palestinian Genocide by nuclear terrorist, genocidally racist, democracy-by-genocide, racist Zionist-run, neo-Nazi Apartheid Israel (just as BDS was successfully applied against US-, UK-, Australia- and Apartheid Israel-backed Apartheid South Africa); and (c) declare that Zionism is genocidal racism, and that the racist Zionists (RZs) and their supporters must be sidelined from public life as have been the Nazis, neo-Nazis, Apartheiders and the Ku Klux Klan (KKK). With 90% of the land of Palestine now ethnically cleansed of Indigenous Palestinian inhabitants, the only realistic solution for a peaceful and just Palestine is immediate dissolution of Apartheid Israel and its immediate replacement (after the example of post-Apartheid South Africa) by a nuclear weapons-free, unitary or Federal state in which all Indigenous Palestinians, including 6 million presently exiled Palestinians, will live peacefully in Palestine with Israelis, with peace, internationally-guaranteed airport-level security, justice, equity, reconciliation, one-person-one-vote, equal human rights for all, and zero tolerance for racism. It could and should happen tomorrow” (Gideon Polya, “UN Security Council Resolution 2334 – beginning of the end for Apartheid Israel?”, Uprooted Palestine, 27 December 2016).

The Israeli Government, Netanyahu, the racist Zionists, and the racist religious right Republicans (R4s) – notably racist, bigoted, pro-Zionist president-elect Donald Trump - have bellowed with indignation and false, defamatory bluster that is the sine qua non of the Zionists (a very appropriate anagram of ISRAEL is e-LIARS). Apartheid Israel threatened Egypt and has cut off aid to Angola and Senegal. More retaliations will follow, especially after Trump takes over as president. However UN Security Council Resolution 2334 is surely the beginning of the end for Apartheid Israel. As exampled here, anti-racist Jews have taken the lead in voicing international zero tolerance for Israeli Apartheid and US-backed Apartheid Israel’s ongoing Palestinian Genocide. All of decent Humanity will insist on resolute and comprehensive Boycotts. Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Apartheid Israel and all supporters of this nuclear terrorist, racist Zionist-run, genocidally racist, democracy-by-genocide, Apartheid rogue state that is a blot on Jewry and on Humanity.