Israel Accuses Obama Of "Shameful" Moves At UN Ahead Of Vote

Menahem Kahana / AFP / Getty Images

NEW YORK — The Obama administration let a resolution before the United Nations condemning Israeli settlements in the West Bank pass, a move that a senior Israeli official called "shameful" ahead of the vote.

"President Obama and Secretary Kerry are behind this shameful move against Israel at the UN," a senior Israeli official told BuzzFeed News in an unsolicited comment. "The US administration secretly cooked up with the Palestinians an extreme anti-Israeli resolution behind Israel's back which would be a tailwind for terror and boycotts and effectively make the Western Wall occupied Palestinian territory."

The Egypt-drafted resolution is came to a vote on Friday afternoon, a day after it was originally meant to be presented before the United Nations Security Council. As written, it refers to the Jewish settlements in the West Bank as "illegal" and calls for a halt to their construction to better promote an eventual "two-state solution" of Israel and an independent Palestine.

The United States has traditionally used its veto power in the Council to reject any resolutions that target Israel; a resolution similar to the one currently tabled was vetoed in 2011. The US, as it had previously indicated, abstained on the vote allowing it to pass by a vote of 14 to none, with one abstention.

A round of applause filled the chamber after the resolution's passage.

"President Obama could declare his willingness to veto this resolution in an instant but instead is pushing it," the Israeli official wrote to BuzzFeed News. "This is an abandonment of Israel which breaks decades of US policy of protecting Israel at the UN and undermines the prospects of working with the next administration of advancing peace."

The resolution has been a moment of high drama the UN over the last 48 hours, as governments have sparred with each other to try and move it over the finish line. On Thursday morning, President-elect Donald Trump weighed in, posting on Facebook that the resolution should be vetoed.

"As the United States has long maintained, peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians will only come through direct negotiations between the parties, and not through the imposition of terms by the United Nations," Trump wrote. "This puts Israel in a very poor negotiating position and is extremely unfair to all Israelis."

Egypt soon after pulled the resolution from being voted on. On Friday, the Egyptian government revealed that the decision came after a call between Trump and Egyptian president Abdel Fateh el-Sisi. The two men met during Sisi's visit to the United Nations General Assembly in September and seemed to hit it off.

"During the call, they discussed regional affairs and developments in the Middle East, and in that context the draft resolution in front of the Security Council on Israeli settlement," Egyptian presidential spokesperson Alaa Yousef told Al Jazeera.

Trump's call to Sisi in turn was prompted by one from the Israeli government, CNN reported on Thursday. An Israeli official told the network that Israel had "implored the White House not to go ahead and told them that if they did, we would have no choice but to reach out to President-elect Trump."

Egypt eventually relented to pressure from four other Security Council members — New Zealand, Venezuela, Malaysia and Senegal — who said that they would bring the draft to a vote if Cairo continue to refuse. Barring the US's veto, the resolution is expected to pass.