[JURIST] Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu [official website] on Sunday summoned the ambassadors of the fourteen UN Security Council [official website] members who supported a resolution condemning Israel’s settlement in Palestine to rebuke them for the vote. Following the passage of this resolution, Netanyahu also ordered [Guardian report] the country’s foreign ministers to reevaluate Israel’s ties to the UN within the month. In addition Israel’s defense minister announced [Al Jazeera report] Israel is cutting civilian coordinations with Pakistan, and that Netanyahu ordered the Israeli foreign ministers to re-evaluate Israel’s ties with the UN within a month. The resolution stated that the settlement had “no legal validity” and called for Israel to “immediately and completely cease all settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territory, including east Jerusalem.” Netanyahu sharply criticized the resolution [Al Jazeera report], refusing to recognize it and calling it “shameful.” The US abstained [JURIST report] from voting on this resolution. Israel subsequently recalled its ambassadors to New Zealand and Senegal for voting in favor of the resolution.

Recent conflicts between Israel and Palestine [HRW backgrounder] over settlements in the occupied West Bank have raised concerns over possible human rights violations. Earlier this month, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, expressed concern [JURIST report] over proposed legislation in Israel that would retroactively legalize the Israeli outposts constructed on privately-owned Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank. Last month the Israel High Court of Justice ruled that the controversial Amona settlement in the West Bank must be dismantled [JURIST report] by December 25. Earlier the same month Israel’s Ministerial Committee for Legislation unanimously approved [JURIST report] the Formalization Bill to legalize the West Bank outposts, which was intended in part to stop the evacuation of Amona outpost. In March the spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights expressed concern [JURIST report] over the apparent extra-judicial execution of a Palestinian man in the West Bank. In January Human Rights Watch urged [JURIST report] businesses to cease operations in Israel settlements. In August 2015 UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged both sides of the conflict [JURIST report] to reconcile and move towards peace after an attack occurred in the West Bank village of Duma, where Jewish extremists allegedly set fire to a Palestinian home while a family slept inside. In April 2015 HRW alleged [HRW report] that Israeli settlement farmers in the occupied West Bank were using Palestinian child laborers in dangerous conditions in violation of international laws.