Another UN resolution for Israel to ignore.
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abcnews.go.com
U.N. Demands Israel End Fence Construction
The Associated Press
UNITED NATIONS Oct. 22 — The U.N. General Assembly overwhelmingly approved a resolution Tuesday demanding that Israel halt construction of a barrier jutting deep into the West Bank and dismantle the section already built. It raised the possibility of further U.N. action if Israel doesn't comply.
The vote was 144 in favor, 4 opposed and 12 abstentions.
Agreement on the final text was reached after extraordinary public negotiations on the final text between the European Union and the Palestinians and Arab and Islamic nations.
The United States, which vetoed a Security Council resolution last week that would have declared the barrier illegal, voted against it along with Israel, the Marshall Islands and Micronesia.
There are no vetoes in the 191-nation General Assembly and its resolutions are not legally binding, but they are considered a reflection of international opinion.
Palestinians say the barrier a network of fences, walls, razor wire and trenches stretching 90-plus miles is a land grab ahead of any possible talks about the borders of a Palestinian state.
Israel insists the barrier is essential to prevent suicide attacks against Israelis and that its construction is purely for security and will help create an atmosphere conducive to peace talks.
In return for EU support, the Palestinians and their supporters agreed to drop a second resolution that would have asked the International Court of Justice at The Hague, Netherlands, for an advisory opinion on the legality of the barrier.
But the possibility of going to the court sometime in the future isn't ruled out.
The resolution requests Secretary-General Kofi Annan to report on Israel's compliance with the demand to tear down the barrier periodically, with the first report to be submitted within one month. Once the report is received, it says, "further actions should be considered, if necessary, within the United Nations system."
Israel's U.N. Ambassador Dan Gillerman demanded to know whether any nation "seriously thinks it legitimate for the secretary-general to focus a report on Israeli security measures but not on Palestinian violations and terrorism that necessitate those measures."
He also warned against threats to "shamelessly politicize" the world court, saying it was "a dangerous precedent" to try to turn the U.N.'s principal legal organ "into a political weapon for one party to a conflict."
The Palestinian U.N. observer, Al-Kidwa, accused Gillerman of "intimidation and blackmail," stressing the political and legal importance of the resolution and thanking the European Union for submitting the draft for a vote. The countries who voted yes "have done a great service to the cause of peace in our region," he said.
The resolution "demands that Israel stop and reverse the construction of the wall in the occupied Palestinian territory, including in and around East Jerusalem, which is in departure of the Armistice Line of 1949 and is in contradiction to relevant provisions of international law."
To get the 15 EU nations to support the resolution, the Palestinians and their supporters agreed to eliminate a statement calling the barrier "illegal" and substitute the phrase calling it "in contradiction."
The resolution added a condemnation of Palestinian suicide bombings mentioning the Oct. 3 attack in Haifa that killed 21 Israelis. It also added a condemnation of the recent bomb attack in the Gaza Strip which killed three American security officers and deplored so-called "extrajudicial killings" by the Israelis, particularly Monday's attack in Gaza which Al-Kidwa said killed 12 Palestinians and injured 90 others.
The final round of negotiations dragged on for more than six hours after the vote was scheduled Tuesday afternoon, and moved into the corridor outside the General Assembly hall for several hours. There, EU ambassadors huddled in one area and Arab and Islamic ambassadors in another, with dozens of other envoys who had come to vote hanging on the fringes trying to find out what was going on.
Italy's U.N. Ambassador Marcello Spatafora, whose country holds the EU presidency, moved between the two groups, sometimes with the British or French ambassadors alongside, conducting often heated negotiations with Al-Kidwa.
"This is really balanced," Spatafora said at one point. "This is not only about the wall. It's about trying to get both parties to fulfill their obligations."
The resolution calls on both the Israelis and Palestinians to fulfill their obligations under the "road map" peace plan drafted by the EU, the United Nations, the United States and Russia.
Specifically, it says the Palestinians should "undertake visible efforts on the ground to arrest, disrupt, and restrain individuals and groups conducting and planning violent attacks." It says Israel should "take no actions undermining trust, including deportations and attacks on civilians and extrajudicial killings."
Despite the improvements in the final EU-backed draft, U.S. deputy ambassador James Cunningham said the United States couldn't support it because it still makes a legal judgment and doesn't name Palestinian terrorist groups carrying out suicide bombings in Israel such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
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