Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu denounces United Nation as ‘house of lies’, amid last ditch efforts by US and Israel to head off opposition

Donald Trump’s threat to cut US funding to countries that oppose his decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in a UN vote on Thursday has set the scene for confrontation with countries already bridling over the president’s approach.

Trump's bullying and bluster on Jerusalem is bad news for the UN | Patrick Wintour Read more

Amid accusations of bullying and blackmail, the US and Israel have continued their furious efforts to persuade countries to back Trump’s position, amid predictions that more than 150 of the 193 countries in the general assembly could vote against the US.

Trump made his threat to cut US funding on Wednesday as he gave his wholehearted support to his UN ambassador, Nikki Haley, who had sent members a letter warning that the US would be “taking names” of those who opposed it.

The draft resolution reaffirms 10 security council resolutions on Jerusalem, dating back to 1967, including requirements that the city’s final status must be decided in direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.

It also “demands that all states comply with security council resolutions regarding the holy city of Jerusalem, and not to recognise any actions or measures contrary to those resolutions”.

Play Video 0:50 Trump on UN Jerusalem vote: 'we're watching your votes' – video

In an indication of the scale of defeat anticipated, Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, launched a pre-emptive attack denouncing the UN as a “house of lies” on Thursday morning.

“The state of Israel rejects this vote outright,” Netanyahu said. “Jerusalem is our capital, we will continue to build there and additional embassies will move to Jerusalem.

“Jerusalem is the capital of Israel, whether or not the UN recognises this. It took 70 years for the United States to formally recognise this, and it will take years for the UN to do the same.”

The Israeli foreign ministry had earlier described the country’s frantic diplomatic efforts as “very vast”.

Thursday’s emergency general assembly session is as much a vote on the US’s claim to international leadership under Trump as on the fraught issue of Jerusalem.

Q&A Why is recognising Jerusalem as Israel's capital so contentious? Show Hide Of all the issues at the heart of the enduring conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, none is as sensitive as the status of Jerusalem. The holy city has been at the centre of peace-making efforts for decades. Seventy years ago, when the UN voted to partition Palestine into Jewish and Arab states, Jerusalem was defined as a separate entity under international supervision. In the war of 1948 it was divided, like Berlin in the cold war, into western and eastern sectors under Israeli and Jordanian control respectively. Nineteen years later, in June 1967, Israel captured the eastern side, expanded the city’s boundaries and annexed it – an act that was never recognised internationally. Israel routinely describes the city, with its Jewish, Muslim and Christian holy places, as its “united and eternal” capital. For their part, the Palestinians say East Jerusalem must be the capital of a future independent Palestinian state. The unequivocal international view, accepted by all previous US administrations, is that the city’s status must be addressed in peace negotiations. Recognising Jerusalem as Israel’s capital puts the US out of step with the rest of the world, and legitimises Israeli settlement-building in the east – considered illegal under international law. Photograph: Thomas Coex/AFP

In a sign of the uphill struggle the US and Israel face, King Salman of Saudi Arabia – a country frequently held up as the model for warming relations in the Arab world with Israel – announced he continued to support the idea of East Jerusalem as a future capital of a Palestinian state.



While Trump’s threat was seen in the Middle East – including Israel – as being aimed at US allies such as Jordan and Egypt, who each receive more than $1bn in American aid and are expected to vote against the US, observers are sceptical whether Trump could follow through on his threat.

Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan expressed the hope that the world would teach “a good lesson” to the US, adding that Trump could not buy Turkey’s vote “with your dollars”.

“We are expecting big numbers supporting the resolution,” one Palestinian official who has been tracking the votes said on Thursday morning. “Perhaps somewhere around 160 in favour. What we are hearing is that Nikki Haley’s letter has had a very good impact for us.”

Trump went further than Haley on Wednesday, saying Americans were tired of being taken advantage of. “For all these nations, they take our money and then vote against us. They take hundreds of millions of dollars, even billions of dollars, and then they vote against us. We’re watching those votes. Let them vote against us.”

Supporters of the resolution expect Canada to vote with the US and Israel, and there has been speculation that Australia might abstain. A UN diplomat said Hungary and the Czech Republic might also bow to US pressure.

Diplomats expressed their anger at the Trump administration’s tactics. “No honourable state would bow to such pressure,” said Turkey’s foreign minister, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu. “The world has changed. The belief that ‘I am strong therefore I am right’ has changed. The world today is revolting against injustices.”

Among other countries to have been critical of Trump and Haley’s comments is Bolivia, which has a security council seat. “The first name that she should write down is Bolivia,” its UN ambassador, Sacha Sergio Llorenty Soliz, said of Haley’s message. “We regret the arrogance and disrespect to the sovereign decision of member states and to multilateralism.”

Trump’s comments have also attracted criticism in the US. Nihad Awad, the national executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, tweeted: “Our government should not use its leadership at the UN to bully/blackmail other nations that stand for religious liberty and justice in Jerusalem. Justice is a core value of Christianity, Judaism and Islam.”

Israel has been trying to garner support for the US’s stance, with its deputy foreign minister, Tzipi Hotovely, saying that both the US and Israel are making “immense efforts” to block Thursday’s resolution.

Despite the tenor of the Trump administration’s public comments over the president’s recognition of Jerusalem, behind the scenes there has been a recognition that the unpopularity of the move – which has led to a Palestinian refusal to meet US peace mediators – will necessitate a cooling-off period, according to a senior US official.