US Peace Now statement on Israeli settlements at UN Security Council

Published: 18 October 2016

Last updated: 4 March 2024

The UN Security Council invited Israeli NGO B’Tselem and Americans for Peace Now to address its 14 October 2016 meeting titled ‘Illegal Israeli Settlements: Obstacles to Peace and the Two-State Solution’. We posted a report about the meeting and the full statement by Hagai El-Ad of B’Tselem last Sunday and now post a link to the full statement by Lara Friedman on behalf of Americans for Peace Now. All five permanent members of the UNSC sent ambassador-rank representatives to the session and also spoke out against continued Israeli settlement activity.

Statement on Israeli Settlements at the UN Security Council – Lara Friedman – LobeLog 17.10.16
‘I come here today because I know the facts – facts about trends and developments that we and our colleagues in Peace Now have been documenting for more than two decades. Facts that disclose both the intent and impact of the Israeli government’s settlement policies. Facts that are alarming. … The [population and construction] numbers – and these are official Israeli numbers – tell the story. But this is only part of the story of how settlements have kept on expanding. The rest of the story is this: there is an entire machine of Israeli policies, active and passive, that is constantly working to support the expansion and entrenchment of settlements.’

And see:

B'Tselem head: Why I spoke against the occupation at the UN – Hagai El-Ad – Haaretz 16.10.16

It was B’Tselem’s duty to go to the UN – Haaretz Editorial 18.10.16
B’Tselem Executive Director Hagai El-Ad is worthy of our respect. It was not only his right to make the important and courageous statements he made to the members of the UN Security Council last Friday; it was his duty. B’Tselem was established to collect and publish information on human rights violations under the Israeli occupation. It fulfills its obligation diligently and professionally, and even the IDF has used its services more than once. It was under the UN's aegis that Israel was established, and it must also be the organisation that acts to end the occupation, which reaches its 50th anniversary next year. [The US State Department criticised Netanyahu’s attack on B’Tselem and Americans for Peace Now for speaking at the Security Council, saying it values the information they provided and that governments should defend freedom of speech.]