Katz threatens to ‘break and dissolve’ PA if it pushes UN resolution against Israel
Palestinians have submitted measure to General Assembly demanding Israeli pullout from West Bank, sanctions on senior officials; Foreign Ministry coordinating response with allies
Lazar Berman is The Times of Israel's diplomatic reporter
Foreign Minister Israel Katz has threatened to “break and dissolve” the Palestinian Authority if they move forward with aggressive measures against Israel in the United Nations, his office told The Times of Israel on Sunday.
The threat came as the PA submitted a draft resolution to the General Assembly demanding that Israel be forced to implement the decisions of the International Court of Justice in The Hague, the UN’s top court. The measure is set to be voted on next week, Israel’s UN mission said Sunday.
Last week, Katz led a discussion on Israel’s response to the PA’s intention to push for the vote, the Foreign Ministry told The Times of Israel.
The resolution calls for an Israeli withdrawal from the territories within six months, ending the settlement enterprise and “the return of Palestinians to their land,” enforced sanctions on senior Israeli officials, and blocking weapons sales to Israel if they might be used in Palestinian areas.
The draft also calls for no more embassies to Israel to be established in Jerusalem.
Katz ordered a set of moves to be coordinated with the US and other Israeli allies to oppose the decision, the Foreign Ministry said. He also instructed the ministry to prepare a set of responses against the PA that will be calibrated to match the severity of the final resolution.
He told Israeli diplomats, including UN Ambassador Danny Danon, to emphasize to US, European, and UN officials that if the Palestinian proposal passes, Israel will impose “severe sanctions” against the PA, which could include suspending all communication.
“If the Palestinian Authority acts against Israel in complete contradiction to the commitments it undertook in the interim arrangements that were signed, Israel will act in the same way and stop all cooperation with the PA and bring about its dissolution,” Katz said.
UN Ambassador Danny Danon said Sunday that, if passed, the draft will be “a reward for terrorism and a message to the world that the barbaric massacre of children, the rape of women, and the kidnapping of innocent civilians is a profitable move.”
“Let it be clear,” he said. “Nothing will stop nor deter Israel in its mission to bring back all the hostages and defeat Hamas.”
The ICJ’s July 19 decision was non-binding. General Assembly resolutions are also non-binding, but in this case, there is concern that it could snowball and lead to pressure for arms embargoes and the blacklisting of settlements, the report said.
In its July decision, the ICJ said it determined Israel’s policy of settlement in the West Bank violated international law, and that Israel had effectively annexed large parts of the West Bank — along with East Jerusalem, which it formally annexed and designated as sovereign Israeli territory in 1980 — due to some of the apparently permanent aspects of Israeli rule there.
The legal consequences of its findings, the court ruled, were that Israel must end its control of these areas, cease new settlement activity, “repeal all legislation and measures creating or maintaining the unlawful situation” — including those that it said “discriminate against the Palestinian people in the Occupied Palestinian Territory” — and provide reparations for any damage caused by its “wrongful acts.”
In addition, the court said that all UN member states are obligated not to recognize changes to the status of the territories and that all states are obligated not to aid or assist Israel’s rule of the territories, and ensure that any impediment “to the exercise of the Palestinian people of its right to self-determination is brought to an end.”
The PA has renewed its active efforts against Israel on the international scene since the war in Gaza broke out on October 7 with Hamas’s unprecedented attack on Israel, in which terrorists killed some 1,200 people and took 251 hostages.
In response, Israel launched a ground invasion of Gaza with the proclaimed objectives of dismantling Hamas and getting the hostages back.
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 40,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far, though the toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel says it has killed some 17,000 combatants in battle and another 1,000 terrorists inside Israel on October 7.
Israel has said it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and stresses that Hamas uses Gaza’s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas including homes, hospitals, schools, and mosques.
Israel’s toll in the ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza and in military operations along the border with the Strip stands at 342.
In addition to using the destruction from the war and the casualty figures in Gaza as a springboard for a renewed push for Palestinian statehood, the PA has also taken Israel to the International Court of Justice and backed the International Criminal Court in seeking war crimes arrest warrants against Israeli leaders.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has penalized the PA for its efforts, freezing funds from tax revenues that are meant to go to Ramallah and instead giving the money to families of victims of terrorism.
Jeremy Sharon contributed to this report.
