US blocked China’s effort to condemn Israel at UN Security Council, says official

The United States blocked an effort led by China at yesterday’s UN Security Council emergency meeting on the Gaza escalation for members to issue a press statement expressing their concern over the ongoing violence, a senior Israeli official tells The Times of Israel.

Israel lobbied the US to act against such an initiative, fearing it would draw an equivalence between IDF and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the senior official says.

The Biden administration has consistently come to Israel’s aid at the Security Council, blocking the panel from issuing statements or passing resolutions on Israeli-Palestinian flareups in over half a dozen instances, including several times during the May 2021 Gaza war.

The one exception was the statement it helped pass earlier this year blasting the Israeli decision to legalize nine West Bank outposts and advance plans for nearly 10,000 new settlement homes. The statement was a symbolic move after the US blocked Security Council members from passing a binding resolution against Israel.