50 years of Western rejectionism finally gives way. The civilized world has finally recognized that Palestinians are human beings.
UN Council backs 'vision' of Palestinian state
By Reuters - March 13 2002 12:35
The U.N. Security Council has passed a U.S.-drafted
resolution referring for the first time to a Palestinian
state existing side by side with Israel.
The 14-0 vote late on Tuesday, with Syria abstaining,
also marked the first time the 15-nation council had
approved a resolution on the Middle East since
October 2000 and was the first text in recent memory
touching on the troubled region to be written by
Washington.
U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte said Washington's surprise move aimed to
give momentum to the peace mission being launched this week by U.S. Middle
East envoy Anthony Zinni.
The vision of a Palestinian state had been expressed before by both President
Bush and Secretary of State Colin Powell, Negroponte added.
Palestinian U.N. representative Nasser al-Kidwa, more accustomed to criticizing
the United States for obstructing its plans, had rare praise for the U.S. resolution
as "something which we believe will help the situation on the ground."
Israeli U.N. Ambassador Yehuda Lancry termed the resolution balanced -- "which
is quite a novelty for Israel" -- and expressed hope that Zinni's peace mission
would succeed in leading to a cease-fire and ultimately to a resumption of peace
talks.
But Syria's U.N. envoy, Mikhail Wehbe, dismissed the text as "a weak resolution
that fails to deal with the root cause of the problem -- namely the Israeli
occupation of the Palestinian territories."
He said Damascus had decided to abstain rather than vote against the text
because it "did not want to break the unity of the council."
"AFFIRMING A VISION" OF PALESTINIAN STATE
The United States, Israel's closest ally, has in the past more typically used the
threat of its veto power to block resolutions proposed to the council by Arab
nations. It has argued that proposed solutions to the crisis should come from the
parties and be acceptable to both sides.
Tuesday's vote fell on a day that Israeli forces killed 31 Palestinians in their
biggest offensive in the West Bank and Gaza since Israel captured the territories
in the 1967 Middle East war.
The resolution said the council was "affirming a vision of a region where two
states, Israel and Palestine, live side by side within secure and recognized
borders." A U.S. official said the phrase had been plucked from a speech by
Powell.
The resolution also demanded an "immediate cessation of all acts of violence,
including all forms of terror, provocation, incitement and destruction" and called on
Israelis and Palestinians to work together toward a cease-fire with an eye to
resuming peace negotiations.
Washington, Israel's closest ally, put its draft forward after Syria pressed for a text,
backed by Arab nations, that referred to a need for the Jewish state, as "the
occupying power," to abide by international protections for civilians caught in war.
Council envoys said the U.S. move caught Syria's U.N. envoy completely off guard.
The U.S. draft surfaced hours after U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan unleashed
his toughest criticism to date of Israel, appealing to it end its "illegal occupation" of
Palestinian lands and curb its attacks on civilians. Aides said it was the first time
Annan had branded the occupation as illegal.
In an emotional plea delivered at a public council meeting, Annan said the scale
of the Middle East carnage had soared to horrifying levels and urged leaders on
both sides to "lead your peoples away from disaster."
He said Israeli attacks on civilian areas, "the assassinations, the unnecessary
use of lethal force, the demolitions and the daily humiliation of ordinary
Palestinians" were fueling the fires of Palestinian "hatred, despair and
extremism."
He also urged the Palestinians to stop all acts of terror, saying they had "played
their full part in the escalating cycle of violence, counterviolence and revenge." |
