Israel rebukes countries’ ambassadors over UN Security Council vote

Benjamin Netanyahu has summoned the ambassadors of all UN security council members which backed a resolution condemning Israeli settlements to “personally reprimand” them, Israeli foreign ministry announced on Sunday.

The ministry added that the ambassador of the US was not among the envoys summoned.

According to Israel’s official state radio Kol Yisrael, the ambassadors summoned on Sunday for the Israeli prime minister’s dressing down include all those from security council members with permanent missions in Israel: Russia, China, Japan, Ukraine, France, Britain, Angola, Egypt, Uruguay and Spain.

The United States abstained on the resolution, allowing it to pass, rather than vetoing it, as it usually does with resolutions it sees as overly critical of Israel, leading to US Ambassador Daniel Shapiro being summoned by Israeli PM, an Israeli official told CNN Sunday. “We can confirm‎Ambassador Shapiro will meet with PM Netanyahu this evening. We will have n‎o other details to offer,” a State Department spokesperson told CNN.

“We have no doubt that the Obama administration initiated it, stood behind it, coordinated its versions and insisted upon its passage,” Netanyahu said at the morning cabinet meeting accusing US president Barak Obama of directly coordinating the resolution, of which Washington has later denied.

The rebuke was escalated as Israel continued to retaliate against countries that supported the motion, cutting aid to Senegal, cancelling forthcoming official visits – including by the Ukrainian prime minister – and recalling two of its ambassadors. In addition, Netanyahu also ordered the Israeli foreign ministry to “re-evaluate all our ties to the UN within a month”, Guardian reported.

The resolution, which passed on Friday with 14 votes in support and only the US abstaining, condemned Jewish settlements in the occupied territories as constituting a flagrant violation of international law. It also demanded that states “distinguish, in their relevant dealings, between the territory of the state of Israel and the territories occupied since 1967”, according to Reuters.

Israel has pursued a policy of constructing settlements on territory it captured in a 1967 war with its Arab neighbors – the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, areas Palestinians seek for a state. Most countries view the settlement activity as illegal and an obstacle to peace. Israel disagrees, citing biblical and historical connections to the West Bank and Jerusalem as well as security interests.

About 430,000 Israeli settlers currently live in the West Bank, and a further 200,000 Israelis live in annexed East Jerusalem, which Palestinians see as the capital of their future state, official reports revealed.