United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334 was adopted on 23 December 2016. It concerns the Israeli settlements in "Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem". The resolution states that Israel′s settlement activity constitutes a "flagrant violation" of international law and has "no legal validity", and demands that Israel stop such activity and fulfill its obligation as an occupying power under the Fourth Geneva Convention.
It was the first UNSC resolution to pass regarding Israel and Palestine since 2009, and the first to address the issue of Israeli settlements with such specificity since Resolution 465 in 1980. While the resolution did not include any sanction or coercive measure and was adopted under non-binding Chapter VI of the United Nations Charter, Israeli newspaper Haaretz stated it "may have serious ramifications for Israel in general and specifically for the settlement enterprise" in the medium-to-long term.
The resolution passed with the support of 14 of the 15 members of the Council; the United States, which has veto power, abstained. The passage of the resolution was "met with applause in a packed chamber". In response, the government of Israel retaliated with a series of diplomatic actions against members of the Security Council, including recalling its ambassadors, summoning member countries' ambassadors and cancellations of visits or aid.
The draft was originally presented by Egypt on the basis of a document prepared by British legal and diplomatic figures working together with the Palestinians. On 22 December, United States President-elect Donald Trump called on Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi to withdraw the proposal, and Egypt withdrew the nomination after what its ambassador called an "intense pressure". Then on 23 December, the draft was taken up and proposed again by Malaysia, New Zealand, Senegal and Venezuela. New Zealand was pressured to withdraw, Netanyahu informing their Foreign Minister Murray McCully that support for the proposal would be considered by Israel as a declaration of war. Britain encouraged New Zealand to keep pushing for a vote. Following a telephone conversation between Netanyahu and Vladimir Putin, the Russian ambassador to the UN Vitaly Churkin suddenly asked for the vote to be postponed until after Christmas. His proposal failed to gain any support.
The resolution was passed 14 to 0; all members voted for the resolution except for the United States, which abstained. The United States Ambassador Samantha Power explained the abstention, by saying that on one hand the United Nations often unfairly targets Israel, that there are important issues unaddressed by the resolution, and that the US did not agree with every word in the text; while on the other hand she said that the resolution reflects facts on the ground, that it reaffirms the consensus that the settlement activity is not legal, and that the settlement activity has gotten "so much worse" as to endanger the viability of the two-state solution.
Media and observers contrasted the US decision to abstain to its long-standing tradition of vetoing resolutions targeting Israel over the issues of settlements. During the meeting over the resolution, the Israeli ambassador Danny Danon denounced members who had approved it, comparing it to banning the French from "building in Paris". According to David Keyes, a spokesperson for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Barack Obama was behind the resolution and helped with both "formulating and pushing" it.
