Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday that he had to express “deep disappointment” over US Secretary of State John Kerry’s speech and vowed to work with the incoming Trump administration to contain the fallout from last week’s U.N. resolution calling Israeli settlements illegal.
“We are not about to be swayed by a mistaken policy that could cause big, big damage,” Netanyahu said. “Israelis do not need to be lectured about the importance of peace by foreign leaders,” he added.
Netanyahu also claimed that US President Barack Obama’s administration was behind the recent UN Security Council resolution that condemned Israeli settlement as illegal.
In the farewell speech at the State Department, Kerry strongly criticised Israel and its policy of settling its citizens in occupied territories claimed by the Palestinians. He said the continued settlement growth is threatening the possibility of a two-state solution to the conflict, which Netanyahu has endorsed.
Earlier the resolution passed in the UN Security Council had stated that “Israel’s establishment of settlements in Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem, had no legal validity, constituting a flagrant violation under international law and a major obstacle to the vision of two States living side-by-side in peace and security, within internationally recognized borders”.
