The Empire 765

What the zionists seem to forget is this: 


Est ubi gloria nunc Babyloniae? Where is ancient Egypt? China, India, Greece, Rome? And soon the USA, which is already going down?


Dear friends of BADIL,

Please find attached a press release in response to the US decision to
veto a Security Council Resolution recognizing the illegality of Israeli
settlements.

BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency & Refugee Rights (Bethlehem, Palestine)
Tel: +972-2-277-7086
Fax: +972-2-274-7346
Email: info@badil.org
Website: http://www.badil.org  

US veto underscores failure of US-sponsored 'peace process' 

BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights is dismayed by the US’s 

opposition to a UN Security Council Resolution that seeks to affirm the illegality of Israeli settlements in 

the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT). The US’s position demonstrates its continued neglect of 

international law and human rights norms and its incapacity to act as an 'honest' peace broker in the 

decades-old colonial conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. 

The Security Council Resolution, which has 120 co-sponsors, deliberately reflects well-established US 

policy on settlements in order to avoid a US veto. That the US would nevertheless veto this resolution 

reflects its unwillingness to hold Israel to account for its violations of the inalienable rights of the 

Palestinian people to self-determination, national independence, sovereignty and return. Instead, President 

Barack Obama, Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, and US Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice have insisted 

that a Security Council Resolution is counterproductive to the peace process and that the controversy over 

settlements should be settled in direct negotiations. Given the US’s dismal record in halting settlement 

expansion and its inability to pressure Israel to extend its 10-month settlement moratorium, despite 

offering lucrative incentives, the exercise of the US veto gives Israel the green light to continue and 

accelerate the growth of its colonial settlements. 

Since the advent of the peace process in 1991, illegal Israeli settlements have more than doubled and have 

been accompanied by a complex network of road blocks, check points, the systematic expropriation of 

Palestinian lands, destruction of Palestinian homes and the displacement of thousands of Palestinian 

families. Moreover, under the veneer of a 'peace process', Israel has built an Apartheid Wall within the 

occupied West Bank in an attempt to circumscribe its illegal settlements and solidify its illegal annexation 

of East Jerusalem, in defiance of a 2004 International Court of Justice Advisory Opinion deeming the route 

of the Wall, the settlements, and the associated regime of restrictions and closures to be illegal. Far from 

bringing a viable resolution to this conflict, 20 years of the 'peace process' has afforded Israel impunity to 

continue its colonial and Apartheid policies and provided cover to further expropriate and de-facto annex 

Palestinian land. 

The US’s veto continues its legacy of shielding Israel from accountability. Between 1972 and 1997, the US 

used its veto 32 times to shield Israel from rebuke; amounting to nearly half of the 69 vetoes the US has 

cast since the founding of the UN. The US’s insistence that accountability to international law and human 

rights norms are mutually exclusive to the peace process has undermined the viability of establishing 

peace and has been especially deleterious to Palestinians who, stateless, living under occupation and exile, 

lack the international protection otherwise afforded by humanitarian and human rights law. 

By vetoing this resolution, the US will cast the final nail in the coffin of the terminally ill peace process 

and destroy any lingering doubts regarding its credibility as a peace broker. The US’s intransigent 

diplomatic, financial and military support for Israel and opposition to international law and human rights 

norms further amplifies the Palestinian call for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel as 

the most effective method by which Israel's respect for the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people and 

peace can to be achieved.