Israel’s Knesset adopts resolution opposing Palestinian statehood
The resolution was adopted with 68 votes in favour and only nine against, The Times of Israel reports, and is a further rejection from Israeli lawmakers of the two-state solution.
“The Knesset of Israel firmly opposes the establishment of a Palestinian state west of Jordan,” the resolution said.
The vote came hours after UN chief Antonio Guterres said Israel is “driving a stake through the heart” of the two-state solution by changing the geography of the occupied West Bank through administrative and legal steps.
Under the Oslo Accords, signed in 1993, Israel agreed to bring about Palestinian self-determination in the form of a two-state solution: a Palestinian state – existing alongside Israel – in an area limited to a fraction of historic Palestine.
‘Dangerous remarks’ by Israeli gov’t spokesman put UNRWA chief’s security at risk
David Mencer, an Israeli government spokesperson, made disparaging and dangerous remarks about Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner-general of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees, known as UNRWA.
“Now if the UN was doing what it was designed to do, then Philippe Lazzarini should be one of the good guys. But he is not. He is one of the bad guys. A terrorist sympathiser. A Jew-killing enabler. A liar,” Mencer said.
On Wednesday, Al Jazeera’s Gabriel Elizondo asked Stephane Dujarric, the spokesperson for the UN secretary-general, about Mencer’s remarks.
Dujarric said the Israeli spokesman’s comments were “unacceptable, to say the least”. “Using the kind of inflammatory language he used to describe Mr Lazzarini – and I don’t want to repeat them. But they are there for the record. In an environment that is already extremely volatile – is reprehensible and downright dangerous,” Dujarric said.
“It puts at risk a senior UN official whose only focus is on helping civilians in Gaza. To alleviate their suffering,” he said.
More than 190 UNRWA staff have been killed in Gaza since Israel began its war on the besieged Strip more than nine months ago.
