US shows power, vetoes UN resolution on Trump's Jerusalem declaration

The United States has vetoed a UN Security Council draft resolution seeking to reaffirm Jerusalem's status as unresolved, after 14 UN Security Council members voted in favor of the resolution on Monday, in response to US President Donald Trump’s decision to recognize it as Israel’s capital and plans to move the American embassy to the city. 

The remaining 14 council members voted in favor of the Egyptian-drafted resolution, which did not specifically mention the United States or Trump but which expressed “deep regret at recent decisions concerning the status of Jerusalem.” 

The United States of America shows 💪💪💪over the United Nations Security Council to veto its draft resolution rejecting the recent recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

— olomoinfo (@Aisapaul) December 18, 2017

Though the US veto had been widely expected.

What is troublesome to some people […] is that the United States had the courage and honesty to recognise a fundamental reality," Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the UN, said.

Jerusalem has been the political, cultural, and spiritual homeland of the Jewish people for thousands of years – they have had no other capital city, she continued.

The United States has the sovereignty to determine where and whether we establish an embassy," said Haley, describing the vote as an "insult" that "won't be forgotten.

This was the first time the United States exercised its veto power at the UN Security Council since Trump took office.

Along with the UK, France, Russia, and China, the US is a permanent member of the UN Security Council, with the power to block any resolution from passing with the use of a veto.

Meanwhile Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took to twitter to thank the U.S. for vetoing the resolution.

Thank you, Ambassador Haley. On Hanukkah, you spoke like a Maccabi. You lit a candle of truth. You dispel the darkness. One defeated the many. Truth defeated lies. Thank you, President Trump. Thank you, Nikki Haley. pic.twitter.com/zFIiStoait

— Benjamin Netanyahu (@netanyahu) December 18, 2017

Palestinian Ambassador to the UN Riyad Mansour said that "with this veto, the U.S. has missed an opportunity to rectify its illegal decision from December 6." He further added that the U.S. "remains on the wrong side of history" and that the Palestinians "reiterate that [Trump's] decision has no legal effect on the status of Jerusalem.

It is paradoxical that while we were waiting for a peace plan from the US, the administration instead decided to further obstruct peace and delay its realisation, Riyad Mansour said.

The US decision encourages Israel to persist in its crimes against the Palestinian people and to continue its occupation of our territory. No rhetoric will hide this complacency in prolonging the occupation,"said Mansour.

Trump's declaration unleashed widespread anger and rallies within Palestine and in major cities across the world.

Since the decision, nine Palestinians have been killed and more than 1,900 injured in protests in the occupied territories of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip.