The Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, the nation’s largest Orthodox Jewish umbrella organization, applauds the U.S. House of Representatives for passing House Resolution 11 – “Objecting to United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334 as an obstacle to Israeli-Palestinian peace, and for other purposes.”

The bipartisan resolution was introduced by House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce (R-Calif.) and Ranking Member Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.). It had 104 other co-sponsors and was approved Jan. 5 by a vote of 342-80, with four voting “present.”

The House resolution rejects the United Nations Security Council’s Dec. 23 vote to approve Resolution 2334, which casts Israel’s building of settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem as illegal and an obstacle to Israeli-Palestinian peace. Rather than exercising its veto power, the United States abstained from voting, threatening the trust and support Israel has long placed in its most important ally.

House Resolution 11 calls for the UN resolution to be repealed or fundamentally altered so that it is no longer one-sided and anti-Israel; and supports direct bilateral negotiations between the parties as the only legitimate path toward security and peace.

The Orthodox Union’s support for the House resolution was entered into the Congressional Record by Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.).

After the House vote, Nathan Diament, Executive Director for Public Policy for the Orthodox Union stated:
“We deeply appreciate the House’s clear bipartisan rejection of the UN Security Council’s latest calumny against Israel and the House’s repudiation of the Obama Administration’s failure to veto UNSC Resolution 2334 as it should have. We appreciate the strong leadership by Congressional friends of Israel including Representatives Ed Royce, Eliot Engel and so many others.”