[Mb-civic] NYTimes.com Article: Remove Wall, Israel Is Told by the U.N.

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Remove Wall, Israel Is Told by the U.N.

July 21, 2004
 By WARREN HOGE 



 

UNITED NATIONS, July 20 - The General Assembly approved a
resolution overwhelmingly on Tuesday evening demanding that
Israel obey a World Court ruling that it abandon and
dismantle its separation barrier on the West Bank and pay
compensation to Palestinians affected by its construction. 

The vote was 150 in favor and 6 against - including the
United States - with 10 abstentions. Last-minute amendments
accepted by the Arab sponsors of the measure during a
hastily called two-hour recess succeeded in gaining the
support of all 25 members of the European Union and more
than 30 other nations that had abstained the last time the
matter came before the assembly. In that vote - on Dec. 8,
2003, on a resolution that asked the international court to
rule on the barrier's legality - there were 74 abstentions,
with 90 votes in favor and 8 against. 

"Thank God that the fate of Israel and of the Jewish people
is not decided in this hall," Israel's ambassador, Dan
Gillerman, told the delegates after the vote on Tuesday
night was posted on the electronic board next to the dais. 

Nasser al-Kidwa, the Palestinian observer to the United
Nations, hailed the outcome as "magnificent," saying: "The
debate is completed. It is now time for implementation and
compliance, and at a later stage for additional measures." 

Resolutions from the 191-member General Assembly are
nonbinding and largely symbolic, unlike those passed by the
15-member Security Council. Israel said in advance that the
vote would not alter its resolve to continue building the
barrier. 

James B. Cunningham, the deputy American ambassador, said
the United States voted against the measure because it was
"unbalanced" and erred in assigning a problem to the courts
that rightly should be solved through political
negotiations. 

"The resolution diverts attention from where it should be -
on the practical efforts to move the parties towards
realization of the ultimate goal of two states living side
by side in peace and security," he said. 

Mr. Kidwa said before the vote that he would now push for a
binding Security Council resolution, even though such a
move would draw an American veto. The United States vetoed
a Security Council resolution last October condemning the
barrier. 

"The threat of veto will not thwart us, and all others who
respect and uphold international law," Mr. Kidwa during the
debate. 

The vote had been postponed twice in an effort to give Arab
and European Union diplomats time to reach agreement on
language that would persuade European countries to change
their stance of abstaining on such measures. 

After the two-hour break this evening, two paragraphs were
added to the resolution that satisfied European demands. 

The first called on the Palestinian Authority "to undertake
visible efforts on the ground to arrest, disrupt and
restrain individuals and groups conducting and planning
violent attacks" and on the Israelis "to take no action
undermining trust, including deputations and attacks on
civilians and extra judicial killings." 

The second reaffirmed "that all states have the right and
duty to take action in conformity with international law
and international humanitarian law to counter deadly acts
of violence against the civilian population in order to
protect the lives of their citizens." 

Mr. Gillerman disparaged those phrases as "grudging
references to terrorism" and "carefully crafted, often
constructively ambiguous phrases." He said adopting the
resolution was "pandering to an agenda that seeks to focus
on the response to terrorism but to marginalize the gravity
of terrorism itself." 

Under the resolution, the assembly demanded that Israel act
on the decision on July 9 by the International Court of
Justice in The Hague that the barrier built on West Bank
land to shield Israeli settlements was illegal and should
be torn down. It also requested the secretary general to
compile a register of damages to be used in calculating
reparations. 

The barrier includes electronic fencing, concrete and wire
walls and trenches and guard towers, all of which Israel
asserts is needed to ward off Palestinian attackers and
suicide bombers. It is, Israel says, a necessary defensive
response to the Palestinian leadership's failure to hold
back the attackers. 

In the debate on Friday, Mr. Gillerman called the barrier
"the Arafat fence," saying it was made necessary by the
intifada launched four years ago against Israel by the
Palestinian leader, Yasir Arafat. In a news conference, Mr.
Gillerman showed charts portraying a 90 percent decline in
successful terror attacks, a 70 percent reduction in people
killed and an 85 percent decline in people wounded in areas
where the barrier has been completed. 

In an earlier blow to the barrier, the Israeli Supreme
Court ordered the army to change the route of the barrier
in a 20-mile stretch near Jerusalem, saying it was causing
too much hardship on the local Palestinian population. 

The American ambassador, John C. Danforth, said the United
States opposed both the resolution and the court's decision
because they "point away from a political solution" to the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict. 

Saying that a solution must be balanced, Mr. Danforth said
the resolution was "wholly one-sided." 

"It does not mention the threat terrorists pose to Israel,"
he said. "It follows a long line of one-sided resolutions
adopted by the General Assembly, none of which has made any
contribution to peace in the Middle East." 

Voting against the resolution with the United States and
Israel were Australia, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia and
Palau. Abstaining were Cameroon, Canada, El Salvador,
Nauru, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tonga,
Uganda, Uruguay and Vanuatu. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/21/international/middleeast/21nati.html?ex=1091430936&ei=1&en=149b837855b53605


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