The Israeli ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, addresses the security council [Image: A Jones/Pacific/Barcroft Images].

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has jumped on this like a drowning man at driftwood. And he has already said he will not abide by the resolution.

What will happen now? Will the UN act on its resolution, or will it prove as toothless on this as it has on the UK’s systematic violations of the rights of people with disabilities?

The United Nations security council has adopted a landmark resolution demanding a halt to all Israeli settlement in the occupied territories after Barack Obama’s administration refused to veto the resolution.

A White House official said Obama had taken the decision to abstain in the absence of any meaningful peace process.

The resolution passed by a 14-0 vote on Friday night. Loud applause was heard in the packed chamber when the US ambassador, Samantha Power, abstained.

All remaining members of the security council, including the UK, voted in support. Egypt, which had drafted the resolution and had been briefly persuaded by Israel to postpone the vote, also backed the move.

Friday’s vote was scheduled at the request of four countries – New Zealand, Malaysia, Senegal and Venezuela – who stepped in to push for action a day after Egypt put the draft resolution on hold.

Israel recalled its ambassadors to New Zealand and Senegal in protest on Saturday.

Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas’s office said the vote was “a big blow” to Israeli policy and a show of “strong support for the two-state solution”.

Source: US abstention allows UN to demand end to Israeli settlements | World news | The Guardian

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