Norwich Business School Scholarships 2017/2018 for International Masters Students

Application Deadlines:

• NBS Step-Up Scholarship: 31st July 2017
• NBS Going Forward Scholarship: 30th June 2017
• NBS Open World Scholarship: 31st May 2017

Offered annually? Yes

To be taken at (country): UK

About the Award(s): Three types of awards are available for students intending to begin Msc courses. They are:

• NBS Step-Up Scholarship
• NBS Going Forward Scholarship
• NBS Open World Scholarship

There are a significant number of scholarships available to help students wishing to continue their studies to MSc level.  The School offers two strands of Master’s Programmes: Applied Career courses and Academic and Professional courses.  Applied Career Courses provide practical career relevant study for people expecting to take up management roles early in their career and are suitable for graduates of non-business related degrees.

Students who achieve a degree from Norwich Business School, who have a degree from UEA in a subject with a strong numerical content, or a Business-related degree from another institution, can apply for our Academic and Professional Courses which are designed for graduates seeking advanced level research skills, and for people considering further steps in their education such as a PHD.

There are also two specialist Master programmes available: MSc Enterprise and Business Creation prepares students considering starting a business.  MSc Brand Leadership support students seeking a career working with creative strategies to develop brands.

Type: Masters

£4000 NBS Step-Up Scholarship: This scholarship is for current UEA final year undergraduate students who wish to continue their studies to MSc level in Norwich Business School in September 2017.

Eligibility:

• UEA graduates completing their undergraduate degree in any subject in summer 2017 and progressing directly to an MSc in Norwich Business School in September 2017
• Degree with a classification of 2:1
• Complete application for the MSc course submitted by 31st July 2017

Value of Scholarship:

• The value of the award will be £4000 and is payable as a reduction of tuition fee.
• The duration of the award is one year
• This scholarship cannot be held alongside any other scholarship

Selection Process:

• Awarded automatically to students meeting the eligibility criteria.  Awards will be confirmed after the degree results are released

£4000 NBS Going Forward Scholarship: This scholarship is for students graduating from any UK or EU institutions wishing to take an MSc in Norwich Business School in September 2017.

Eligibility:

• Graduates of any UK / EU institution
• Degree with a classification of 2:1 (or equivalent)
• Complete application for the MSc course submitted by 30th June 2017
• Scholarship statement submitted by 30th June 2017

Value of Scholarship:

• The value of the award will be £4000 and is payable as a reduction of tuition fee.
• The duration of the award is one year.
• This scholarship cannot be held alongside any other scholarship

Selection Process:

• To be considered, eligible applicants should submit a 250 word statement to nbs.pgt.admiss@uea.ac.uk by the 30th June 2017 answering the following question:

How does the course you have applied for help you achieve your career goals and how would your experiences and interests aid the learning of the cohort as a whole?

• There are a significant number of scholarships available and these will be awarded on the basis of academic merit, the overall strength of the application, and the strength of the scholarship statement.

£4000 NBS Open World Scholarship: This scholarship is for students graduating from any overseas institution wishing to take an MSc in Norwich Business School in September 2017.

Eligibility:

• Graduates of any international (non-EU) institution
• Degree with a classification of 2:1 (or international equivalent)
• Complete application for the MSc course submitted by 31st May 2017
• Scholarship statement submitted by 31st May 2017

Value of Scholarship:

• The value of the award will be £4000 and is payable as a reduction of tuition fee.
• The duration of the award is one year
• This scholarship cannot be held alongside any other scholarship

Selection Process:

• To be considered, eligible applicants should submit a 250 word statement to nbs.pgt.admiss@uea.ac.uk by the 31st May 2017 answering the following question:

How does the course you have applied for help you achieve your career goals and how would your experiences and interests aid the learning of the cohort as a whole?

Visit Scholarship Webpage for details

Award Provider: Norwich Business School (NBS)

Canada: Fully-funded Visiting Scholarships for Students in India and Commonwealth Countries in Africa 2017

Application Deadline: 9th January, 2017

Eligible Countries: India and Commonwealth Countries in Africa

To be taken at (country): Canada

Eligible Field of Study: Forestry and other related fields

About the Award: The Canadian Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Scholarships (www.queenelizabethscholars.ca) aim to activate a dynamic community of young global leaders across the Commonwealth to create lasting impacts at both home and abroad through inter-cultural exchanges encompassing international education, discovery and inquiry, and professional experiences.

Type: Training

Eligibility: Applicants must currently be conducting forestry research at a university in India or Commonwealth countries in Africa (preferably, at one of our partner institutions) and identify a UBC faculty member who is willing to mentor them during their visit to UBC.

To be eligible, applicants must be:

• 35 years of age or under at the time of application
• Proficient in English
• Currently enrolled as a master’s or Ph.D. student in India or Commonwealth countries in Africa
• Citizens of a Commonwealth country (but not Canadian). Anyone who has applied for Canadian citizenship or permanent residency is not eligible.
• Scholars must agree to return to their home country after the study visit and sign a form to this effect as part of their acceptance of the award.
• Scholars must participate in community engagement activities in Canada.

Selection Criteria: Eligible applications will be evaluated based on:

• the significance of proposed visit to applicant’s research- either in the form of course work, or research experience, or both
• the alignment of proposed research with the QES program goals degree of support from current supervisor
• the fit between research program of proposed UBC faculty member and the applicant’s proposed research
• the commitment from proposed UBC faculty member for mentoring the applicant’s research activities.

Number of Awardees: Not specified

Value of Scholarship: The UBC faculty mentor should have an active research program that is well-aligned with the applicant’s research.  The scholarship covers airfare (max C$2,100) and living expenses (C$1,500 month x 4 months).

Duration of Scholarship: The deadlines is January 9, 2017 (for a start date between May 2017 to August 2017).

How to Apply: To apply, please send:

• Cover letter outlining your motivation to apply for the visiting scholarship, proposed activities while at UBC, and how you will contribute to community engagement activities in Canada
• One-page summary of your current or planned research work
• Curriculum vitae
• Letter of support from current supervisor at home institution, outlining your current research, intellectual preparedness, and how a visiting scholarship will contribute to your work
• Letter of support from a UBC faculty member outlining a fit between their current research and applicant’s proposed plan, and commitment to mentor the applicant during their stay at UBC

Application materials should be emailed to Gayle Kosh (gayle.kosh@ubc.ca)

Visit Scholarship Webpage for details

Award Provider: Faculty of Forestry, UBC

Important Notes: Note that successful Queen Elizabeth Visiting Scholarship applicants must also apply as a Visiting International Research Student through UBC Go Global: (http://students.ubc.ca/about/go-global/coming-ubc-exchange/visiting-international-research-student).

1,000 Heinrich Boll Foundation Scholarships for International Students, Germany – Undergraduate, Masters & PhD – 2017/2018

Application Deadlines: 3rd March 2017 (Spring)

Offered annually? Yes

Accepted Subject Areas: Any subject area is applicable

About Scholarship: The Heinrich Böll Foundation grants scholarships to approximately 1,000 undergraduates, graduates, and doctoral students of all subjects and nationalities per year, who are pursuing their degree at universities, universities of applied sciences (‘Fachhochschulen’), or universities of the arts (‘Kunsthochschulen’) in Germany.

Selection Criteria: Scholarship recipients are expected to have excellent academic records, to be socially and politically engaged, and to have an active interest in the basic values of the foundation: ecology and sustainability, democracy and human rights, self determination and justice.

Eligibility: The following general requirements apply to international student applicants (except EU citizens) who wish to study in Germany:

• You must be enrolled at a state-recognized university or college (e.g. Fachhochschule) in Germany at the time the scholarship payments begin.
• You should provide proof that you have already graduated with an initial professional qualification. This programme mainly supports students aiming for a Masters degree.
• You need a good knowledge of German, and require you provide proof of your proficiency. Please note that the selection workshop (interviews, group discussions) will normally be in German. Exceptions (interview in English) are, however, possible.
• Unfortunately, the current guidelines specify that the foundation cannot support foreign scholarship holders for stays abroad in third countries for more than four weeks.
• You should definitely apply for a scholarship before the start of your studies, in order to ensure long-term support and cooperation.
• The Heinrich Böll Foundation cannot award you a scholarship, if you are studying for a one-year Masters degree and were not previously supported by the foundation.
• Applications are possible before you begin your study programme or within the first three semesters.
• Applicants must provide proof that they have been accepted as a doctoral student by an institution of higher education in Germany or an EU country (for doctoral scholarship).

Number of Scholarships: Approximately 1000

Duration of Scholarship: Scholarship will be offered for the duration of the undergraduate, Masters or Doctoral programme

Eligible Countries: International Students

To be taken at (country): Universities, Universities of Applied Sciences, or Universities of the Arts in Germany

How to Apply: The application form will be completed online; additional application documents will be submitted as PDF.

Visit the Scholarship Webpage for Details 

Visit This Webpage For Further Information

Sponsors: The Heinrich Böll Foundation, Germany

Women Edition-Africa Program 2017. Fully-funded for Women Journalists in Sub-Saharan Africa

Application Deadline: 31st January, 2017

Eligible Countries: Women journalists from Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia can apply.

About the Award: Women’s Edition offers a unique opportunity to become part of an international network of leading women journalists interested in women’s health and development. PRB will select 10 to 12 women journalists from several low-income countries in sub-Saharan Africa to participate in a weeklong seminar and study tour on the continent in April 2017. Successful participants from this group will be invited to another seminar/study tour in 2017, when they will be joined by an equal number of women journalists from South Asia.

Type: Training

Eligibility: Intrepid women journalists who:

• Report from USAID priority countries on the African continent—the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia.
• Hold an influential editorial position senior-level editor, reporter, or producer—with a leading media outlet that has a large audience, such as a national or regional newspaper, magazine, or broadcast station. Freelancers and bloggers may apply but must provide a letter of support from a news organization indicating that it will publish or broadcast their work.
• Demonstrate interest in women’s health, development, and population issues and a commitment to covering these topics.
• Can communicate comfortably and effectively in English during the seminars, though they may write or broadcast in any language.

Number of Awardees: 10-12

Value of Program: PRB will cover all seminar expenses, including travel, lodging, and meals.

Duration of Program: 1 week

How to Apply: Click here for the application form. The application form is a Word document. After you open the document, please save it to your own computer before you fill out the application. To be considered, applicants must submit all of the information and material requested.

Visit Program Webpage for details

Award Provider: The Population Reference Bureau (PRB)

Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellowships (ECF) for International Researchers 2017

Application Deadline: 31st January 2017.

Offered annually? Yes

To be taken at (country):  Northumbria University, UK

Eligible Fields: The University is looking to support applications under the following eight themes:

• Bioeconomy
• Digital Living
• Extreme Environments
• Future Engineering
• Humanities
• Integrated Health
• The Centre for Environmental and Global Justice
• Ideate: Critically Aware Design Innovation

Type: Fellowship

Eligibility: 

• All candidates must hold a doctorate or have equivalent research experience by the time they take up the Fellowship, and must not yet have held a full-time permanent academic post in a UK university or comparable UK institution.
• Applications from those with a doctorate must have submitted their doctoral thesis for viva voce examination not more than four years prior to the application closing date. (Hence those who formally submitted their doctoral thesis before 2 March 2013 are not eligible unless they have since had a career break.)

Selection Criteria: 

• Applicants should clearly state innovative aspects of their research and how they are of relevance to their chosen theme.
• Interested applicants should contact a relevant member of academic staff aligned to their chosen theme prior to submitting an expression of interest to establish whether their research fits with our interests. (Staff profiles are on the theme web pages)
• The Leverhulme Trust favour proposals that offer fresh and innovative perspectives and approaches, so this will be a key aspect in considering Expressions of Interest.
• Applications will be considered in all subject areas with the following exceptions: both because of the substantial funding available from other sources for applied medical research, and the Trust’s priority to support investigations of a fundamental nature, they do not fund studies of disease, illness and disabilities in humans and animals, or research that is intended to inform clinical practice or the development of medical applications.

Value of Fellowship: £6,000 per year.

Duration of Fellowship: three years

How to Apply: Interested applicants should submit an expression of interest consisting of:

1. An academic CV of not more than 2 pages.
2. An outline research proposal to include: title, abstract (250 words), statement of past and current research (250 words) fit to theme and potential mentor (250 words) and a 2 page (A4) project outline.

Expressions of interest or should be submitted as a single PDF or Word document by email to researchsupport@northumbria.ac.uk by 11.59pm on 31st January 2017. Initial assessment will take place at department and faculty level. Successful applicants will be contacted in early-February to work on their applications further before the final deadline. (2nd March 2017)

Visit Fellowship Webpage for details

Award Provider: Northumbria University

Romanian Government Scholarships for International Students 2017/2018

Application Deadline: 20th March 2017.

This is the date whereby Foreign diplomatic missions accredited to Bucharest must send the application files with a Verbal Note to Ministry of Foreign Affairs – Public, Cultural and Scientific Diplomacy Directorate.

However, the candidate should enquire at the diplomatic mission where he intends to submit the application file about the enrolment calendar. The deadline for submitting the application files is established by each diplomatic mission.

Offered annually? Yes

Eligible Countries: Any non-EU country

To be taken at (country): Romanian Universities

Eligible Field of Study: priority will be given to the candidates applying for: political and administrative sciences, education studies, Romanian culture and civilization, journalism, technical studies, oil and gas, agricultural studies, veterinary medicine, architecture, music, arts.

About Scholarship: The scholarships are granted for three levels of study:

1.  for the first cycle (licenta): This scheme is dedicated to graduates of high schools or of equivalent pre-university systems, as well as to candidates who require the equivalent of partial studies and the continuation of their studies in Romania. The complete cycle of university studies lasts for 3 to 6 years, according to the specific requirements of the chosen faculty, and ends with a final examination (licenta);
2.  for the 2nd cycle (master): This scheme is dedicated to graduates of university/post graduate studies; it lasts for 1,5 to 2 years and ends with a dissertation;
3.  for the 3rd cycle (doctorate) this scheme is dedicated to the graduates of university/postgraduate studies (i.e. master); it lasts for 3-4 years, in keeping with the specific requirements of the chosen faculty, and ends with a doctor’s thesis.

Type: Undergraduate, Masters and Doctoral degrees

Eligibility: Citizens of non EU countries (irrespective of their country of residence) are eligible to apply. Priority is given to citizens from non EU states with which Romania does not have cultural and education cooperation agreements.

Number of Scholarships: 85 scholarships for undergraduate and postgraduate studies in Romania

Value of Scholarship:

• Free-of-charge tuition
• Free-of-charge accommodation (depending on availability, accommodation will be offered free-of-charge in students hostels, in keeping with the higher education regulations and within the limits of the sums available for this purpose),
• Financial support – a monthly amount representing :
  •  the equivalent in Romanian currency of 65 EURO per month, for the under-graduate students (1st cycle),
  • the equivalent in Romanian currency of 75 EURO per month, for post-graduate students (master degrees and specialization) 2nd cycle,
  • RI737126839CN the equivalent in Romanian currency of 85 EURO per month, for post graduate students (doctor’s degree) 3rd cycle.

These scholarships do not cover food, international and local transport. The candidates must be prepared to support personally any other additional expenses.

Duration of Scholarship: For the period of study, subject to academic performance

How to Apply: To get all the necessary information about the scholarships (conditions, necessary documents, enrolment calendar) and to submit their application files, the candidates should apply directly to:

• the Romanian diplomatic missions accredited to the candidate’s country of origin or of residence or to
• the diplomatic mission of candidate’s state of origin accredited to Bucharest

Visit scholarship webpage for Details

Sponsors: Romanian Government

Important Notes

Language of Study: In order to promote Romanian language and culture, the Ministry of National Education has decided that the beneficiaries of the scholarships should study only in the Romanian language. The candidates who do not know Romanian are offered one supplementary preparatory year to study the language. Students who declare that they know Romanian language will have to pass a language test organized by the competent higher education institutions.

Selling Death: US Weapons Kill a Yemeni Child Every 10 Minutes

Medea Benjamin

While the world has been transfixed on the epic tragedy in Syria, another tragedy — a hidden one — has been consuming the children of Yemen.

Battered by the twin evils of war and hunger, every 10 minutes a child in Yemen dies from malnutrition, diarrhea, or respiratory-tract infections, UNICEF reports. And without immediate medical attention, over 400,000 kids suffering from severe acute malnutrition could die, too.

Why are so many of Yemen’s children going hungry and dying?

Since 2014, Yemen has been wracked by a civil war — a war that’s been exacerbated by intervention from Saudi Arabia, a U.S. ally. Since 2015, the Saudis have been pounding this nation, the poorest in the Middle East, with cluster bombs and explosives.

And the U.S. has been helping, selling the Saudis advanced weapons and providing intelligence and logistical support.

This nearly two-year-old bombing campaign has killed thousands of innocent Yemenis and sparked a severe humanitarian crisis. A desert country, Yemen imports 90 percent of its food. But thanks to a Saudi naval blockade and the bombing of the country’s main port, imports have dried up.

Subsequent shortages have led food prices to soar. Meanwhile, the war has left millions of people unemployed and displaced. Unable to buy the high-priced food, they’re forced to depend on humanitarian aid for their survival.

UN and private relief organizations have been mobilizing to respond to the crisis, but a staggering 18.8 million people — out of a population of 25 million — need assistance. The situation is only getting worse as the war drags on and the winter cold sets in.

At the same time, the UN Refugee Agency has received less than half the funds it needs.

The nation’s health system is also on the verge of collapse. Less than a third of the country’s population has access to medical care, and only half of its health facilities are functional. Diseases such as cholera and measles are spreading, taking a heavy toll on children.

The only way to end the humanitarian crisis is to end the conflict. That means pushing harder for a political solution and calling for an immediate ceasefire. Until that happens, the United States should stop its military support for the Saudi regime.

Despite the repressive nature of the Saudi regime, for decades U.S. administrations have supported the Saudi government both diplomatically and militarily. Under Obama alone, weapons sales to the Saudis reached a whopping $115 billion.

Concerned over the high rate of civilian casualties, on December 12 the White House took the rare step of stopping the sale of 16,000 guided munition kits. This is a great step forward, but it represents only a small fraction of total U.S. weapons sales to the Saudi regime.

In fact, at the same time the White House announced it was blocking this $350 million deal, the State Department announced plans to sell 48 Chinook cargo helicopters and other equipment worth 10 times as much.

Moreover, the coming Trump administration might well restore all sales. That’s why it’s important for Congress, which has the authority to block weapons sales but seldom actually does, to step forward and take a stand.

Selling weapons to a repressive regime should never be allowed. And today, when these weapons are leading to the death of a Yemeni child every 10 minutes, the sales are simply unconscionable. The time to stop them is now.

Any Way You Calculate it, Income Inequality is Getting Worse

Pete Dolack

A flurry of new reports have provided yet more data demonstrating that inequality is getting worse. All right, this does not qualify as a shock. But it really isn’t your imagination.

The economic crisis, nearly a decade on now, has been global in scope — working people most everywhere continue to suffer while the one percent are doing just fine. One measure of this is wages. A newly released report by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development finds that median wages in the OECD’s 35 member countries are still below where they were in 2007. For the bottom 10 percent of wage earners, the news is worse; wages for this bottom decile have declined 3.6 percent since 2007. But wages have risen for the top 10 percent.

The report on wage inequality by the OECD, the club of the world’s advanced capitalist countries and a few of the biggest developing countries, also found that inequality has increased in most of those countries. No part of the world has been immune. The report, “Income inequality remains high in the face of weak recovery,” states:

“The crisis has not only heavily affected the number of jobs but also their quality. … Even in countries where labour market slack has been re-absorbed, low-quality jobs and high disparities among workers in terms of work contracts or job security weigh heavily on low-earning households and contribute to maintaining high levels of income inequality. Wages have stalled in most countries, including those that were largely spared by the recession (e.g. Japan) and fallen in those hard hit (e.g. Greece, Portugal, Spain, and the United Kingdom).”

Chile and Mexico are the most unequal countries among the OECD members, followed by the United States, as measured by the gini coefficient. Iceland, Norway and Denmark are the least unequal. (The gini coefficient, the standard statistical measure of income distribution, is equal to zero if everybody has the same income and to one if a single person takes all income.) To put that scale into some tangible form, Iceland’s gini coefficient is 0.24 and Chile’s is 0.46.

Global inequality worse than any country’s

The world’s most unequal country is South Africa at 0.65. Calculating this scale on a global basis gives a better idea of the scale of inequality but is a difficult statistic to find. One measure, as calculated for a United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization paper, estimates the world gini coefficient in 2005 was 0.68, significantly higher than in the 19th century but a bit lower than it had been in 1981. That’s higher than South Africa. The Economist, crunching data from several sources, estimates a global gini coefficient of 0.65 in 2008, a very slight dip from the 1980s peak.

Global inequality has very likely worsened since but no more recent statistics appear to be available.

Rising inequality has been particularly acute in the global center of world capitalism, the United States, and a quick examination of trends there are useful as capitalists elsewhere seek to emulate the new U.S. gilded age. Those at the top of the pyramid are grabbing ever more. The Economist reports:

“Including capital gains, the share of national income going to the richest 1% of Americans has doubled since 1980, from 10% to 20%, roughly where it was a century ago. Even more striking, the share going to the top 0.01%—some 16,000 families with an average income of $24m—has quadrupled, from just over 1% to almost 5%. That is a bigger slice of the national pie than the top 0.01% received 100 years ago.”

Another new study, by economists Thomas Piketty, Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman, found that the average pre-tax income of the bottom 50 percent of U.S. adults is flat since 1980 in inflation-adjusted dollars — and this includes government transfers, other public spending and the value of job-derived fringe benefits — and thus the share of national income going to the bottom half of United Statesians declined to 12 percent in 2014 from 20 percent in 1980. The top one percent, meanwhile, hauled in 20 percent of income in 2014. Another way of looking at this inequality, the authors write, is that the top one percent of U.S. adults earned on average 81 times more than an adult in the bottom 50 percent. This ratio was 27 times in 1980.

The top of the pyramid does well around the world

To zero in on the tip of the pyramid, the U.S. Internal Revenue Service released a report this month on the 400 tax returns showing the highest incomes reported to it. Those 400 taxpayers reported an aggregate income of $127 billion in 2014 — a fourfold increase in inflation-adjusted dollars since 1980. Those 400 taxpayers by themselves accounted for 6 percent of all interest income and 11 percent of all capital gains (profits from financial assets such as stocks and bonds). To put that in perspective, 149 million tax returns were filed in the U.S. in 2014. Stock-market bubbles and other forms of financial speculation truly are the province of the super-wealthy.

In Canada, Statistics Canada reports that, in 2013, the top one percent grabbed 10.3 percent of income; the average Canadian in this grouping received $450,000 that year. In Britain, the top one percent have doubled their income since 2005, collectively adding another £250 billion to their wealth. Meanwhile, a fifth of Britons live below the poverty line and life expectancy in some areas is lower than in many developing countries, The Independent reports. Australian inequality has not yet reached the above levels, but is getting wider — the percentage of total Australian income grabbed by the top 0.1 percent there has more than doubled since 1980.

Again, nothing here is going to make you fall off your chair in shock. The question becomes: What will we do about all this? This is the internally logical result of the development of capitalism — the upward distribution of income as exploitation accelerates through work speedups, layoffs, movement of production to low-wage havens and the panoply of deregulatory measures resulting from corporate capture of governments.

So-called “free trade” agreements, with their use of clauses enabling multi-national corporations to use secret private tribunals controlled by their lawyers to overturn laws they don’t like, are an exemplary example of the processes used to ratchet up inequality, even if but one of many manifestations. Capital is international and our resistance to it must be international as well. The rise of far right and even fascist movements across Europe and in the United States, decked in the cloaks of nationalism and fake populism, is all the more dangerous because the scapegoating that is always front and center in such movements deflects attention from the real problems.

If the beginning of the end of capitalism is upon us — admittedly something that none of us can yet be certain of — then the need to build movements that can move societies toward a better world is all the more a necessity. Even if the final decay of capitalism has arrived, that decay is likely to unfold over decades unless a global Left movement, uniting the variety of social and environmental movements and struggles across borders, can speed up the process. The only alternative is for inequality to get worse and the repression necessary to impose that inequality to get still more severe.

What Israel Fears

Vijay Prashad

On December 23, the United States Ambassador to the UN abstained on UN Security Council resolution 2334, which condemned Israel’s settlement activity in the occupied territory of the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The language is tentative. It does not call the settlements illegal, but only having no “legal validity”. In the world of international law, the difference might not be significant.

Israel pressured Egypt to withdraw the resolution, which it did, and it pressured the U.S. to veto it, which it did not. Malaysia, New Zealand, Venezuela and Senegal sponsored the resolution, which passed with 14 votes in favour and one abstention (the U.S.). Ambassadors around the table hoped that the vote would push towards the two-state solution, the “common aspiration of the international community”, said Chinese Ambassador Wu Haitao.

The resolution and the occupation

Five years previously, during the high point of the Arab Spring, the U.S. had vetoed a similar resolution. Then U.S. Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice said that her country rejects “in the strongest terms the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlement activity”. So then why veto the resolution, which the U.S. would abstain on five years later? In 2011, Ms. Rice said that the resolution would not further the negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. Israel, the subtext read, would lash out against the Palestinians. This is precisely what the Israelis now promise to do: build more settlements, fully annex the West Bank and East Jerusalem and thereby annul any prospect of a two-state solution.

The UN resolution — important as it is in itself — is not what Israel fears. What troubles Tel Aviv are the steps that would come after this resolution, particularly from the International Criminal Court (ICC). In January 2015, the ICC’s Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda opened a preliminary investigation into Israel’s actions during the 2014 bombing of Gaza and into the illegal settlements. Ms. Bensouda has since made it clear that she would not move forward to a full criminal investigation without substantial political clarity from the UN Security Council.

Resolution 2334 produces the political will for such a move by the ICC. With Palestine as a recognised state in the UN as of 2012, and as a member of the ICC since 2014, and with this resolution now in force, the ICC could move in the next few months to a rigorous investigation of Israeli criminality. This would threaten the settlers in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, but it would also pressure Israeli soldiers to refuse to serve in any future criminal bombardment of Gaza. Whether the Palestinian leadership has the courage to insist on this remains to be seen.

In 1967, Israel seized the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip — parts of Palestine that had been outside its control. The UN Security Council passed a series of resolutions (242, 252, 298) within the next decade, asking Israel to withdraw from this land and — in resolution 446 (1979) — to desist from building settlements on the occupied territory. The U.S., which had already become the shield for Israel, abstained from the major resolutions.

It was on this occupied territory that it was then assumed — against Israeli opinion — that a Palestinian state would be built. The two-state solution, the international consensus for the Israel-Palestine conflict, is premised on Israeli withdrawal from this land occupied in 1967. No wonder that the UN has periodically returned to censure Israel for its ongoing occupation and — in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention — the construction of settlements on occupied land.

The first major UN resolution to define the terms of the Israeli occupation was 242, sponsored by the United Kingdom and passed in November 1967 with unanimous approval. There was no abstention and no veto used by the permanent members. U.S. Secretary of State Dean Rusk said at that time that despite the U.S. and Israel being “sharply divided” on the issue of territory, the U.S. made no commitment “to assist Israel in retaining territories seized in the 1967 war”. Even when the administrations in Washington defended Israel’s annexationist policies — such as during the term of Ronald Reagan — the U.S. did not veto to defend the settlements.

The element of criminality

The Oslo Accords (1994) put in place the possibility of a Palestinian state, although it did not have an explicit statement to end settlement activity. Israel continues to eat into the potential Palestinian state. Neither does Israel want a two-state solution nor a one-state solution. This negative approach to the ‘peace process’ means that Israel is committed to a permanent occupation of the Palestinians. It continues to harbour dreams of a Greater Israel (Eretz Israel).

Four years after Oslo, the international community passed the Rome Statute for the establishment of the ICC. It was this new development — the ICC — rather than the Oslo Accords that increased the vetoes exercised by the U.S. in the UN Security Council to protect Israel. The Israeli establishment worried that the ICC would legitimately turn its gaze on issues such as population transfer and war crimes. The ICC — under pressure to investigate crimes outside the African continent — could find that Israeli actions provide a legitimate site of inquiry. The vetoes from Washington prevented any legal foundation for ICC action against Israel.

Prosecutor Bensouda’s investigators visited the West Bank and East Jerusalem in October this year. The ICC said that this was not part of its preliminary investigation, but it is hard to imagine that this is true. The new UN Security Council resolution harkens back to more radical postures from it in 1979 and 1980 as well as to the International Court of Justice’s 2014 finding that the ‘apartheid’ wall that entraps the West Bank is illegal. Pressure will mount on her to take her investigation forward.

Tel Aviv’s triumphalism

The tone of Israel’s rejection came when Ambassador Danny Danon said that Tel Aviv has the right to build “homes in the Jewish people’s historic homeland”. The settlements, for the Israeli government, are essential for their own project. They see nothing short of — as Ambassador Danon put it — “a Jewish State proudly reclaiming the land of our forefathers”. Ambassador Danon is fully in agreement with Washington’s incoming Ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, who believes in a Greater Israel and denies the existence of Palestine. U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to undo the resolution and threatened to end U.S. funding to the UN.

António Guterres, the UN’s new Secretary-General has indicated that he will send a UN Support Mission to push for a two-state solution. Mr. Guterres and Ms. Bensouda will have to thread the needle between the consensus of the international community (a two-state solution) and Israel’s own illegal territorial ambitions. Optimism for progress would be unwarranted.