The UK, France, Germany, and Portugal took the unusual step of issuing statements on December 20th. calling on Israel to “cease all settlement activity including in East Jerusalem, immediately.”
Th statement was described as a ‘Joint statement by European Union Security Council members’
The UK statement is here.
The statement says negotiations depend up four things:
- An agreement on the borders of the two states, based on June 4 1967 lines with equivalent land swaps agreed between the parties.
- Second, security arrangements that respect Palestinian sovereignty and show that the occupation is over, and that protect Israeli security, preventing the resurgence of terrorism and dealing effectively with new and emerging threats.
- Third, a just, fair and agreed solution to the refugee question.
- And fourth, fulfilment of the aspirations of both parties for Jerusalem. Through negotiations, the status of Jerusalem as the future capital of both states must be resolved.
The UK, France, Germany, and Portugal are all United Nations Security Council members.
Background
The United Nations Security Council consists of five permanent members, which are:
China
France
Russian Federation
The United Kingdon
The United States
and ten non-permanent members that are elected by the General Assembly for a term of two years before being rotated among UN members. The election is staggered, and the date of the end of the term of the non-permanent members is listed after their names, below.
Each member of the Council has one vote and decisions on procedural matters are carried by nine votes.
Substantive matters require a majority of nine but must include the votes of all five permanent members (the famous ‘veto’).
Until January 1st 2012, the non-permanent members are:
Boznia and Herzegovina (2011)
Brazil (2011)
Colombia (2012)
Gabon (2011)
Germany (2012)
India (2012)
Lebanon (2011)
Nigeria (2011)
Portugal (2012)
South Africa (2012)
The Presidency of the Council is held in rotation for one month by all members of the Council, and the current presidency for December 2011 is held by the Russian Federation.
Question
I can’t help but wonder whether these four countries approached the other members of the Security Council, or even all the members states of the UN to try to get a vote or a statement by the President to the same effect?
Either they did and were turned down, or they decided to go it alone for some reason.
I guess Christmas may have had something to do with the impetus to make the statement – particularly the part concerning the status of Jerusalem.
It must rankle with some parties that Jerusalem is within Israel.