Israel opposes Palestinian state plan as UN prepares Gaza vote

JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and members of his government underscored their opposition to a Palestinian state ahead of a UN Security Council vote Monday on a resolution endorsing a US-backed Gaza peace plan.

The draft resolution would follow up on the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas brokered by US President Donald Trump, giving the council’s blessing for a transitional administration and a temporary international security force in the devastated territory.

Unlike previous drafts, the latest version of the resolution mentions a possible future Palestinian state, which the Israeli government is vehemently against.

“Our opposition to a Palestinian state on any territory has not changed,” Netanyahu said at a cabinet meeting on Sunday.

Netanyahu had come in for criticism from coalition members, including far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who had accused him of failing to respond to a recent wave of recognition of Palestinian statehood by Western countries.

“Formulate immediately an appropriate and decisive response that will make it clear to the entire world - no Palestinian state will ever arise on the lands of our homeland,” Smotrich urged Netanyahu on X.

The premier replied Sunday that he did “not need affirmations, tweets, or lectures from anyone”.

Other ministers likewise expressed their opposition to Palestinian statehood, though none explicitly referred to the resolution.

“Israel’s policy is clear: no Palestinian state will be established,” Defence Minister Israel Katz wrote on X Sunday.

Foreign Minister Gideon Saar also said on X that the country would “not agree to the establishment of a Palestinian terror state in the heart of the Land of Israel”.

Far-right firebrand and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir went even further, calling the Palestinian identity an “invention”.

The Security Council resolution would effectively usher in the second phase of the US-backed deal reached last month, which brought about a ceasefire after two years of war sparked by Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.

The first phase has seen the release of the last 20 living Israeli hostages and nearly all of the 28 dead captives held by Palestinian militants.

In exchange, Israel has freed nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and returned 330 bodies.

Last week the Americans officially launched negotiations within the 15-member Security Council on a text that would follow up on a ceasefire in the two-year war between Israel and Hamas and endorse Trump’s plan.

A draft of the resolution seen Thursday by AFP “welcomes the establishment of the Board of Peace,” a transitional governing body for Gaza - that Trump would theoretically chair - with a mandate running until the end of 2027.

It would authorise member states to form a “temporary International Stabilisation Force (ISF)” that would work with Israel and Egypt and newly trained Palestinian police to help secure border areas and demilitarize the Gaza Strip.

Unlike previous drafts, the latest mentions a possible future Palestinian state.

The United States and several Arab and Muslim-majority nations including Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Turkey called Friday for the UN Security Council to quickly adopt the resolution.

“The United States, Qatar, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Pakistan, Jordan, and T|rkiye express our joint support for the Security Council Resolution currently under consideration,” the countries said in a joint statement, adding they were seeking the measure’s “swift adoption.”

Friday’s joint statement comes as Russia circulated a competing draft resolution to Council members that does not authorize the creation of a board of peace or the immediate deployment of an international force in Gaza, according to the text seen Friday by AFP.

The Russian version welcomes “the initiative that led to the ceasefire” but does not name Trump.

It also only calls on the UN secretary-general to submit a report that addresses the possibilities of deploying an international stabilization force in war-ravaged Gaza.

The United States has called the ceasefire “fragile,” and warned Friday of the risks of not adopting its draft.

“Any refusal to back this resolution is a vote either for the continued reign of Hamas terrorists or for the return to war with Israel, condemning the region and its people to perpetual conflict,” the US ambassador to the United Nations, Mike Waltz, wrote in The Washington Post.

“Every departure from this path, be it by those who wish to play political games or to relitigate the past, will come with a real human cost.”

While it seemed until now that Council members supported principles of the peace plan, diplomatic sources noted there were questions about the US text, particularly regarding the absence of a monitoring mechanism by the Council, the role of the Palestinian Authority, and details of the ISF’s mandate.

The Russian UN mission said in a statement that its alternative proposal differed by recognizing the principle of a “two-State solution for the Israeli-Palestinian settlement.”

“Unfortunately, these provisions were not given due regard in the US draft,” it said.