Israel stepped back from approving hundreds of new homes in East Jerusalem on Wednesday, ahead of a speech by US Secretary of State John Kerry on the Obama administration’s vision for Middle East peace.
The city council in Jerusalem canceled a vote to approve the construction of 492 units — such as homes, synagogues and other public buildings — in areas of East Jerusalem annexed by Israel.
Council member Hanan Rubin, a member of the city’s zoning committee, said the decision followed a request from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
It came days after the United Nations Security Council passed a resolution condemning Israel’s settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem and as Kerry prepared to give his speech on Wednesday.
“The municipality regards housing in Jerusalem as a municipal need rather than a political action, and therefore there is no need to vote on this on a sensitive day when John Kerry is to give a speech,” Rubin said. “We don’t want to be a part of a political controversy.”
The reason behind Netanyahu’s call for the city council’s vote to be canceled remains unclear, and the vote could still come before the city council’s zoning committee in the future.
Opposition to settlements
The international community believes that Israeli settlements built on land seized from the Palestinians during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war are illegal, and a barrier to any future peace deal. Palestinians claim East Jerusalem as the capital of their future state.
Friday’s Security Council resolution underlined international opposition to settlement activity by Israel. It passed after the US, which usually vetoes such resolutions, decided to abstain.
Netanyahu on Monday ordered the Israeli Foreign Ministry temporarily to limit all working ties with the embassies of the 12 UN Security Council members who voted in favor of the resolution.
Frayed relations
The US decision to abstain has further frayed its relations with Israel.
Netanyahu summoned the US ambassador to Israel on Sunday and launched a scathing attack on the Obama administration.
US President-elect Donald Trump also called on the Obama administration to wield its veto.
‘Declaration of war’
It emerged on Wednesday that Netanyahu threatened a diplomatic “declaration of war” against New Zealand if it supported the resolution.
Netanyahu made the threat to New Zealand’s Foreign Minister Murray McCully hours before the vote last Friday, according to an according official with knowledge of the conversation, who asked not to be identified because of diplomatic sensitivities.
New Zealand was one of four countries which introduced the resolution. Netanyahu instructed the Israeli Ambassador to New Zealand to return to Israel for consultations after the vote.
Mayor: Kerry ‘a stain’ on foreign policy
The mayor of an Israeli settlement in the West Bank, Oded Revivi, sharply criticized Kerry on Wednesday.
“John Kerry is a stain on American foreign policy who is ignorant of the issues. He has chosen to eternalize his legacy as the worst secretary of state in history that chose to stab his closest ally in the back while rivers of blood flowed like water across the Middle East,” said Revivi, mayor of Efrat and chief foreign envoy of the YESHA Council, an umbrella organization that represents an estimated 430,000 Isr
Follow-up action?
While the resolution passed Friday is non-binding, Israel is concerned that there may be follow-up action at the United Nations — specifically, a resolution that would set conditions for negotiations.
Such a resolution would issue parameters for some of the most sensitive issues in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, including borders, the status of Jerusalem as a contested capital, Palestinian refugees, and a time limit for negotiations.
The international peace conference scheduled for January 15 in Paris could be the forum for discussing such a resolution. That would give the international community time to introduce the resolution at the UN Security Council before the end of Obama’s time in office.
Israel has vowed not to attend the conference. The Palestinians say they will attend.
Settlement building in the occupied West Bank is considered illegal under international law, although Israel disputes this. The United States considers settlements “illegitimate” and “an obstacle to peace.”
READ: What the UN vote says about how Trump will treat Israelaeli settlers in the West Bank.