Ron Dermer, the Israeli ambassador to the US, has accused Barack Obama’s administration of “ganging up” on his country by orchestrating a UN resolution on Israeli settlements, in an unusually sharp attack on the outgoing leadership of its closest ally.
Mr Dermer on Monday described America’s decision to abstain in the landmark vote as “a sad day and shameful chapter in US-Israeli relations”. He added that Israel would take evidence it had on the matter to the new administration of president-elect Donald Trump, who will assume office on January 20.
“We will present this evidence to the new administration through the appropriate channels,” Mr Dermer said in an interview with CNN. “If they want to share it with the American people, they are welcome to do it.”
US officials last week denied Israeli accusations that they played a role in crafting or promoting UN Resolution 2334, which demands that Israel “immediately and completely” halt all settlement activity on Palestinian lands, and draws a clear distinction between the country’s internationally recognised borders and the occupied Palestinian territories.
The resolution was passed on Friday with 14 Security Council members voting in favour. The US, which has often used its veto to shield Israel from resolutions critical of its policies, abstained.
The vote infuriated Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, who called in ambassadors of the countries behind the resolution for a reprimand on Christmas Day. The Israeli leader, who holds the post of foreign minister, also ordered his ministers to travel less in coming days to those countries.
“Israel is a country with national pride and we do not turn the other cheek,” Mr Netanyahu said on Monday at a ceremony in northern Israel. “This is a responsible, measured and vigorous response, the natural response of a healthy people that is making it clear to the nations of the world that what was done at the UN is unacceptable to us.”
As part of the diplomatic backlash, Mr Netanyahu has also backed out of a proposed meeting with his UK counterpart Theresa May, British and Israeli officials said on Monday.
The two leaders had been in the process of coordinating a meeting at the upcoming World Economic Forum meeting in Davos in mid-January, but potential discussions have been called off since Friday’s UN vote. The UK was among the countries that voted in favour of the resolution.
“We abandoned the co-ordination,” an Israeli official told the Financial Times on Monday, speaking anonymously because of the sensitivity of the topic.
“It is a disappointment that the Israeli government has announced that prime minister Netanyahu does not want to have a conversation with Theresa May,” Tony Kay, the deputy UK ambassador in Israel, told Israeli Army Radio on Monday.
“I’m sure there will be many conversations between the two prime ministers moving forward and we look forward to having those conversations, and we’ll certainly continue to have those conversations in Tel Aviv.”
In a further sign of diplomatic fallout from the UN vote, Ukraine’s government summoned Eli Belotserkovsky, the Israeli ambassador, to its foreign ministry in Kiev to protest against Israel’s cancellation of an official visit this week by prime minister Volodymyr Groysman. Israel announced on Saturday that it was cancelling the trip after Ukraine backed the resolution.
In Israel, Mr Netanyahu’s fierce reaction to the UN vote came under criticism from opposition politicians in the Knesset on Monday. Yair Lapid, head of the centre-right Yesh Atid party, criticised the UN vote for chastising Israel, but also said that Mr Netanyahu’s reaction was “unreasonable”.
“It’s not a policy; it’s hysteria,” Mr Lapid said in remarks quoted by Israeli media. Israel also recalled ambassadors from Senegal and New Zealand, which sponsored the resolution, cut off its foreign aid to Senegal and said that it would be withholding some UN funding in response to Friday’s vote.
Palestinian leaders and Israelis critical of the occupation have welcomed the resolution as reaffirming legal parameters for a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict before Mr Trump, a vocal supporter of Israel, takes power next month.
Israel opposes what it describes as an attempt by the Palestinians to internationalise the conflict rather than resolve it through direct, bilateral peace negotiations. France is planning an international conference in Paris on January 15 to discuss the conflict, which Mr Netanyahu’s hard-right government also opposes.
On Monday, Avigdor Lieberman, Israel’s ultranationalist defence minister compared the upcoming conference to the trial of Alfred Dreyfus, the Jewish army officer charged with treason at the turn of the last century and later exonerated after a court case that became a byword for French anti-Semitism.
At a meeting of his Israel Beiteinu party faction, Mr Lieberman also urged French Jews to emigrate to Israel, saying in remarks quoted by the Jerusalem Post: “This is the time to tell French Jews: ‘This is not your country or your land and it’s time to leave’.”
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