Israel recalls its ambassador to New Zealand

Israel has recalled Ambassador Itzhak Gerberg from Wellington after New Zealand co-sponsored a resolution calling on the halt of Israeli settlements expansion in the United Nations.

New Zealand Foreign Minister Murray McCully today welcomed the adoption of UN Security Council Resolution 2334 regarding the Middle East Peace Process. The resolution passed with 14 votes in favour and an abstention from the US.

The resolution was put on Friday by four non-permanent Security Council members—New Zealand, Malaysia, Venezuela and Senegal

The Council has five permanent members…China, France, Russia, the U.K. and the USA.

The other ten members are Angola, Egypt, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Senegal Spain, Ukraine,Uruguay and Venezuela.

“New Zealand voted for and co-sponsored the resolution because it is consistent w,ith long-held New Zealand policy positions on the Palestinian question,” Mr McCully says.

“The resolution sends a clear message to the parties to desist from actions that will further undermine the prospect of a two state solution. It calls for Israeli settlement expansion to be halted and for incitement and acts of violence to cease. These have been established New Zealand policy positions for many years.

“It is a sad fact that rather than making progress with talks between the parties, the most the Security Council is able to achieve is to attempt to stop the further undermining of the two state solution,” Mr McCully says.

A spokesman for the Secretary-General of the UN Ban Ki-moon said: “The Secretary-General welcomes the adoption by the Security Council of Resolution 2334 (2016) on the situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question. The resolution is a significant step, demonstrating the Council’s much needed leadership and the international community’s collective efforts to reconfirm that the vision of two States is still achievable.

​​The Secretary-General takes this opportunity to encourage Israeli and Palestinian leaders to work with the international community to create a conducive environment for a return to meaningful negotiations.

​​The United Nations stands ready to support all concerned parties in achieving this goal.”
In the meantime the World Jewish Congress released a statement saying: “WJC President Ronald S. Lauder said  that he was “dismayed” by the United Nations Security Council decision to adopt a resolution against Israeli settlements, and called the United States’ decision to abstain rather than veto the text “disconcerting and unfortunate.”

“This is a dismaying decision by the Security Council which does nothing to enhance the role of the United Nations in resolving the Middle East conflict, and once again singles out Israel for condemnation,” Lauder declared. “It is shocking that 14 of the 15 members of this council voted in favor of the resolution.”

“It is also disconcerting and unfortunate that the United States, Israel’s greatest ally, chose to abstain rather than veto this counterproductive text. It has long been US policy that peace in the Middle East must be negotiated directly between the parties, not imposed by any outside international or other body. This is in keeping with UN resolutions that mandate direct negotiations.

The WJC president Ronald S. Lauder added: “A peace agreement cannot be imposed from the outside, but reached only through bilateral talks between Israelis and Palestinians.

“Israel has shown time and time again that it is willing to enter into talks with a view of ending this conflict, but the Palestinians, instead of coming to the negotiating table, have imposed numerous preconditions, including on the settlement question. It is lamentable that the United Nations, instead of playing the role of honest broker, is taking sides, thus making a peace deal more unlikely,” said Lauder.

In New Zealand Pastor Nigel Woodley and the Flaxmere Christian Fellowship in Hastings and its many supporters throughout New Zealand completely condemned what he called  “the anti-Israel Resolution passed at the United Nations today outlawing Israeli Settlements.”

He added: “We are disgusted at the leading role New Zealand played today at the U N. This is a day of shame for New Zealand. This resolution denies the rights of the Jewish People to build and live on the Holy Land of Israel, Land that has been promised to them in an everlasting resolution by a much greater authority than the New Zealand Government or the United Nations but by the God of Nations Himself.”