Israel to Build Wall Despite U.N. Demands
Wed Oct 22, 8:27 AM ET Add Top Stories - AP to My Yahoo!
By EDITH M. LEDERER, Associated Press Writer
UNITED NATIONS - In a decision seen as a gauge of world opinion, the U.N.
General Assembly overwhelmingly approved a resolution demanding that Israel
tear down a barrier that it says is needed to protect it from suicide bombers,
but that Palestinians call a land grab.
Israeli officials said Wednesday that construction of the fence would continue,
while Palestinians applauded the U.N. decision.
The resolution approved late Tuesday isn't legally binding, but after more than
six hours of extraordinary public negotiations, it not only won support from
the European Union (news - web sites) but was submitted for a vote by the
15-nation bloc, which is one of the sponsors of the "road map" peace plan.
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 (news - web sites), Netherlands, for an advisory opinion on the
legality of the barrier.
But the resolution raises the possibility of going to the court sometime in the
future if Israel doesn't comply with the demand to dismantle the barrier — a
prospect that angered Israel's U.N. Ambassador Dan Gillerman.
Threats to turn the U.N.'s principal legal body "into a political weapon for
one party to a conflict is a dangerous precedent," Gillerman warned. "It should
be rejected out of hand, not legitimized by pandering in a negotiating
process."
On Wednesday, Israel vice-premier Ehud Olmert said Israel would not stop
building the barrier.
"The fence will continue to be built. We have to worry about Israel's security
and it is clear that we will not act according to the instructions of a
hostile, automatic majority ... which has always acted against Israel," Olmert
told Israel Radio.
Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat called the U.N. decision a victory for
peace.
"The world has just sent a powerful message that the shortest way to peace is
not through settlements and walls, but rather through a meaningful peace
process that will end the Israeli occupation that began in 1967," Erekat told
The Associated Press.
The resolution requests Secretary-General Kofi Annan (news - web sites) to
submit periodic reports on Israel's compliance, with the first due within one
month. Once the report is received, it says, "further actions should be
considered, if necessary, within the United Nations (news - web sites) system."
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."
The Palestinian U.N. observer, Al-Kidwa, accused Gillerman of "intimidation and
blackmail," stressing the political and legal importance of the resolution.
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 (news - web sites)
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.
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. "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."
Just before the vote, Spatafora took the floor in the General Assembly hall and
said the EU was tabling the compromise resolution.
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.
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