The Palestinian Ambassador to Egypt and permanent envoy to the Cairo-based Arab League Jamal Shubaki said on Sunday that the Arab League Council approved a Palestinian proposal to create a committee aimed at countering Israel’s attempts to be elected as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council (UNSC), Arabic media reported on Sunday.
According to reports, Shubaki said the committee will consist of president of the Arab League Summit, president of the Arab Leagues ministerial council, the state of Palestine, the Arab League’s secretary-general, and Egypt as the current Arab non-permanent member state of the UN Security Council.
Earlier on Sunday, Shubaki himself submitted the proposal at a closed-door meeting of permanent envoys of member states at the Arab League’s headquarters in Egypt. The representative of Djibouti presided over the meeting as they are the current rotational president of the Arab League Council.
Arab League forms committee to prevent Israeli UN Security Council membership https://t.co/XgzlGqPP9T #Palestine #Israel pic.twitter.com/4cz0APcfHG
— /r/Palestine (@FAREEQAWALPAL) September 11, 2017
In a speech before submitting his proposal, Shubaki highlighted that Israel’s illegal settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem increased by 85 percent in 2017 compared to in 2016, which saw the passing of UNSC Resolution 2334 against settlement expansion.
He also highlighted that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had been shuttling between neighboring countries “trying to recruit more and more of our friends around the world from East Asia to Latin America and Africa” to support the Israeli bid at the UNSC.
Israel has routinely condemned the UN for what it sees as their anti-Israel stance, as numerous resolutions have been passed in recent months condemning Israel’s half-century occupation of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and its relentless settlement enterprise that has dismembered the Palestinian territory.
(Maan, PC, Social Media)
