The United States has allowed the UN Security Council to condemn Israeli settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem as a "flagrant violation" of international law, in a striking rupture with past practice.
In doing so, the outgoing Obama administration brushed aside Donald Trump's demands that the US exercise its veto and provided a climax to years of icy relations with Israel's leadership.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered several diplomatic steps in retaliation, including recalling his nation's ambassador to New Zealand, which had jointly proposed the resolution.
The decision to abstain from the council's 14-0 vote is one of the biggest American rebukes of its longstanding ally in recent memory.
And it could have significant ramifications for the Jewish state, potentially hindering Israel's negotiating position in future peace talks.
Given the world's widespread opposition to settlements, the action will be almost impossible for anyone, including Trump, to reverse.
Nevertheless, Trump vowed via Twitter: "As to the UN, things will be different after Jan. 20th."
The resolution said Israel's settlements in lands the Palestinians want to include in their future state have "no legal validity."
It demanded a halt to such activities for the sake of "salvaging the two-state solution." Loud applause erupted in the council chamber after US Ambassador Samantha Power permitted the resolution to pass.
Most of the world is opposed to Israel's construction of Jewish settlements in lands it seized in the 1967 Mideast War.
The primary holdout at the UN has been the United States, which sees settlements as illegitimate but has traditionally used its veto power as a permanent member of the Security Council to block such resolutions on the grounds that Israeli-Palestinian disputes should be addressed through negotiation.
Friday's resolution was proposed by nations in four different parts of the world: Malaysia, New Zealand, Senegal and Venezuela. It is the first resolution on settlements to pass in 36 years, Malaysia's UN Ambassador Ramlan Bin Ibrahim said.
"Israel rejects this shameful anti-Israel resolution at the UN and will not abide by its terms," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said in a statement, blaming Obama for failing to "protect Israel against this gang-up at the UN" and even colluding with the country's detractors.
"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."
By contrast, chief Palestinian negotiation Saeb Erekat hailed the result as a "victory for the justice of the Palestinian cause."
Explaining the US vote, Power quoted a 1982 statement from then-US President Ronald Reagan, which declared that Washington "will not support the use of any additional land for the purpose of settlements".
