Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that Israel is still opposed to the creation of a Palestinian state.
Netanyahu spoke two days after Israel’s main ally, the United States, and many Muslim-majority countries endorsed a draft UN resolution. The resolution endorses President Donald Trump’s peace plan for Gaza, saying the process offers a path to Palestinian statehood.
The 15-member UN Security Council began talks on November 7 on the draft, which would impose Trump’s proposal to create a “Peace Council” transitional administration in Gaza to address the issues of post-war reconstruction and economic recovery.
Trump’s 20-point plan includes a provision that, if reforms are implemented in the Palestinian Authority, “the conditions for a credible path to Palestinian self-determination and statehood, which we recognize as the aspiration of the Palestinian people, can finally be created.”
The point angered Israeli far-right leaders who opposed the October ceasefire in Gaza brokered by Trump.
On Saturday, far-right ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich called on Netanyahu to denounce the idea of a Palestinian state. Ben-Gvir threatened to leave the governing coalition if the prime minister did not act.
