ISRAEL'S Illegal Land Grab Possible Subject at World Court
seattlepi.nwsource.com
Fence plea to world court
By WARREN HOGE THE NEW YORK TIMES
UNITED NATIONS -- The General Assembly approved a resolution yesterday asking the International Court of Justice to rule on the legality of the barrier that Israel is building in the West Bank.
The vote was 90 in favor and 8 opposed, with 74 abstaining.
The resolution followed a General Assembly vote in October demanding that Israel tear down the barrier and a report from U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Nov. 28 calling its construction "a deeply counterproductive act" that was causing the Palestinian population "serious socioeconomic harm."
The world court, based in The Hague and created to settle legal disputes between states, is not obligated to issue an opinion. But Arab states worked for yesterday's result in the hope of increasing pressure on Israel over what they consider an illegal land grab.
Resolutions from the 191-member General Assembly are non-binding and largely symbolic, unlike those passed by the 15-member Security Council. The United States, which voted against yesterday's resolution, vetoed a similar Security Council resolution in October.
President Bush has expressed concern about the barrier, but the United States has refused to endorse motions against it on the grounds that they do not contain strong enough balancing language condemning terrorism against Israel.
James Cunningham, the deputy U.S. representative, denounced yesterday's resolution as "one-sided and completely unbalanced," adding: "It doesn't even mention the word terrorism."
The barrier includes electronic fencing, concrete and wire walls, trenches and guard towers, and Israel argues it is needed to ward off Palestinian attackers and suicide bombers. It is, say the Israelis, a necessary defensive response to the Palestinian leadership's failure to hold back the attackers.
"This is the Arafat Fence," declared Dan Gillerman, the Israeli ambassador, referring to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. "This is the fence that Arafat built. His terrorism initiated it and made its construction inevitable."
The Israeli envoy complained that Annan's "very unfortunate" report on the wall lacked "fairness, balance and perspective." He said the barrier had saved many Israeli lives and was being built with as much consideration for the local population as possible.
In response, Nasser al-Kidwa, head of the Palestinian observer mission, assailed the barrier as the "Sharon Wall," after Israel's prime minister, Ariel Sharon. He called it "an expansionist wall" and the "wall of shame in the 21st century."
Saying he objected to Israeli characterizations of the barrier as a security measure, Kidwa said, "In our world, there should be no place for walls, particularly if built on occupied territories with the aim of conquest and annexation."
Among those abstaining were the nations of the European Union. Ambassador Marcello Spatafora of Italy, which holds the union's rotating presidency, explained that the Europeans were alarmed about the wall and negative effects it might have on forging a so-called two-state solution, but they believed seeking a legal judgment would not help restart political dialogue and was therefore "inappropriate." |
