One has to go back in time a bit to understand the force of the slap in the face that Israel delivered to the international community in general and to Britain in particular on Feb. 6.
Six weeks before the ruling coalition orchestrated Knesset approval of the so-called Regularization law, which essentially allows the state to expropriate private Palestinian land and hand it over to Jews, the UN Security Council had condemned Israel for expropriating land on the West Bank, including in East Jerusalem, in violation of international humanitarian law. Resolution 2334, adopted unanimously on Dec. 23 by 14 Security Council members, with the United States abstaining, demanded that Israel respect the road map that the Middle East Quartet adopted in 2003 in Security Council Resolution 1515, including a total freeze of settlement activity.
A diplomatic source who requested anonymity told Al-Monitor that not only did Britain vote for Resolution 2334, but the top echelons in London also implored one of their Commonwealth partners, New Zealand Prime Minister Bill English, to join the sponsors of the proposed resolution condemning Israeli settlements. It is not known whether Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took advantage of his Feb. 6 visit to 10 Downing Street to protest Prime Minister Theresa May’s contribution to Resolution 2334. With the “theft law,” to quote Likud Knesset member Benny Begin, about to be voted on in Jerusalem, Netanyahu did not dare divulge the contents of his talk with May about the UN resolution condemning the occupation in general and the land-grabbing settlement enterprise in particular.
Last November, a month prior to the dramatic Security Council vote, Netanyahu had warned members of his Cabinet that the proposed law could result in criminal probes against senior Israeli government figures by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague. Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit had already informed him that he would not be able to defend the law against the petitions likely to be filed with the High Court. So what does a prime minister who calls himself a “strong leader” do? He finds a way to be absent for the vote, thus avoiding responsibility for the nearly unanimous vote by his party members — Begin excepted — in favor of the law. Netanyahu claims to have been held up in London because his meeting with Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson ran late.
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