UN call to tear down the wall

2003-10-22 08:00

New York - The United Nations General Assembly demanded late on Tuesday in a resolution that Israel "stop and reverse" construction of a wall in the West Bank designed to prevent infiltration of Palestinian suicide bombers into Israel.

The resolution that states that the project contradicts international law passed by a vote of 144-4, with 12 countries abstaining.

It said UN member-states were particularly concerned that the route chosen by Israel for the wall "could prejudge future negotiations and make the two-state solution physically impossible to implement and would cause further humanitarian hardship for the Palestinians."

The document calls on both Israel and the Palestinians to fulfil their obligations under the "roadmap" - a US- and European-sponsored three-stage peace plan that provides for creating a Palestinian state by 2005.

It condemns suicide bombings and their recent intensification and urges the Palestinian Authority to "take visible efforts on the ground to arrest, disrupt, and restrain individuals and groups conducting and planning violent attacks" against Israel.

Israel, for its part, is called upon not to take any action "undermining trust, including deportations and attacks on civilians and extra-judicial killings."

Voting against the resolution were Israel, the United States, Micronesia and the Marshall Islands.

Disservice to the peace

Israeli Ambassador Dan Gillerman said the adoption of the measure was "a disservice to the UN and the peace."

"As long as the majority follow this ritual, no wonder the victims of terrorists look elsewhere to be protected," Gillerman said.

Palestinian Observer Nasser al Kidwa thanked members of the European Union for having submitted the resolution.

Cut off fertile land

The barrier, which will effectively cut off large swaths of fertile land and scores of villages from the rest of the West Bank, has been strongly criticised internationally. Even the United States has called it a "problem."

Palestinians branded the barrier the "apartheid wall."

Meanwhile, a senior UN official gave the Security Council a grim picture of the situation in the Middle East, where violence has been on the rise and chances for a peaceful settlement look bleak.

"It is urgent to re-establish momentum toward a just, lasting and comprehensive peace in the Middle East. Sadly, however, the trend is increasingly in the opposite direction," Kieran Prendergast, the UN under secretary general for political affairs, said.

"It ought to be clear by now that violence only begets violence and that there is no military solution to the conflict," he stressed.

"The spiral of events of the first week of October illustrates the significant potential for escalation within the region."

- AFP