US President-elect Donald Trump said Saturday that the UN vote demanding Israel halt settlements in Palestinian territory would make a peace deal "much harder," but said it could happen anyway.
Trump said in a message on Twitter: "The big loss yesterday for Israel in the United Nations will make it much harder to negotiate peace.Too bad, but we will get it done anyway!"
The UN vote Friday marked a stark turnabout in longstanding US custom at the world body.
The Security Council passed the measure after the United States abstained, enabling the adoption of the first UN resolution since 1979 to condemn Israel over its settlement policy.
By deciding not to veto the move, the US took a rare step that deeply angered Israel, which accused President Barack Obama of abandoning its closest Middle East ally in the waning days of his administration.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected the resolution as a "shameful blow against Israel at the United Nations."
Trump, who campaigned on a promise to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital, had bluntly said Thursday that Washington should use its veto to block the resolution.
"As the United States has long maintained, peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians will only come through direct negotiations between the parties, and not through the imposition of terms by the United Nations," he said in a statement.
Trump has chosen as ambassador to Israel the hardliner David Friedman, who has said Washington will not pressure Israel to curtail settlement building in the occupied West Bank.
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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected the resolution and criticised Obama in especially harsh language.
"Israel rejects this shameful anti-Israel resolution at the UN and will not abide by its terms," a statement from his office said.
"The Obama administration not only failed to protect Israel against this gang-up at the UN, it colluded with it behind the scenes," it said.
"Israel looks forward to working with President-elect Trump and with all our friends in Congress, Republicans and Democrats alike, to negate the harmful effects of this absurd resolution."
On Saturday, a senior Israeli official who did not wish to be named said the American abstention at the UN had "revealed the true face of the Obama administration."
The United Nations Security Council votes to pass a resolution condemning Israeli settlement construction at United Nations headquarters in New York (AAP) Source: AAP
"Now we can understand what we have been dealing with for the past eight years," he said.
Trump reacted after the vote by promising change at the UN.
"As to the UN, things will be different after Jan. 20th," he tweeted referring to the date of his inauguration.
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Threat to two-state solution
The US has traditionally served as Israel's diplomatic shield, protecting it from resolutions it opposes.
It is Israel's most important ally, providing it with more than $3 billion each year in defence aid.
That number will soon rise to $3.8 billion per year under a new decade-long pact, the biggest pledge of US military aid in history.
But the Obama administration has grown increasingly frustrated with settlement building in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied for nearly 50 years.
There have been growing warnings that settlement expansion is fast eroding the possibility of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the basis of years of negotiations.
Settlements are built on land the Palestinians view as part of their future state and seen as illegal under international law.
"We cannot stand in the way of this resolution as we seek to preserve a chance of attaining our longstanding objective of two states living side by side in peace and security," said Samantha Power, the US ambassador to the UN.
"The settlement problem has gotten so much worse that it is now putting at risk the very viability of that two-state solution."
Obama adviser Ben Rhodes said "we cannot simply have a two-state solution be a slogan," but added that "we did not draft this resolution."
"We took the position that we did when it was put to a vote," he said.
Trump has signalled he is likely to be far more favourable to Israel.
David Friedman, his nominee for ambassador to Israel, favours moving the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and has voiced support for settlement building.
Some 430,000 Israeli settlers currently live in the West Bank and a further 200,000 Israelis live in annexed east Jerusalem, which Palestinians see as the capital of their future state.
The resolution demands "Israel immediately and completely cease all settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem."
It says settlements have "no legal validity" and are "dangerously imperilling the viability of the two-state solution."
Friday's vote was scheduled at the request of New Zealand, Malaysia, Senegal and Venezuela, which stepped in after Egypt put the draft resolution on hold.
After the resolution passed, Israel recalled its ambassadors to Senegal and New Zealand for consultations. It has no diplomatic relations with Venezuela or Malaysia.
A spokesman for Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas called the resolution a "big blow for Israeli policies".
The move was "an international and unanimous condemnation of settlements and strong support for the two-state solution," said Nabil Abu Rudeina.
Hamas, the Islamist movement that runs the Gaza Strip, also welcomed the vote.
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