US blocks veto on Israeli wall

2003-10-15 11:41

New York - The United States vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution that would have condemned Israel for building a security barrier that cuts into the West Bank.

The American veto came on Tuesday night after the United States suggested an alternate draft that would have called on all parties in the Middle East struggle to dismantle terrorist groups. But Syria, which had introduced the draft, went ahead with the vote anyway.

The United States was the only country to vote against the resolution, using its veto as one of five permanent members of the council. Four of the 15 members of the Security Council abstained: Bulgaria, Cameroon, Germany and Britain.

US Ambassador John Negroponte said the resolution "was unbalanced" and "did not further the goals of peace and security in the region".

Blatant land-grab

The vote came after a fierce debate that saw several of about 40 countries portray the wall as racist and colonialist, a blatant land-grab, and an overreaction that would turn some parts of the Palestinian territories into "open-air prisons".

Syria's UN Ambassador Fayssal Mekdad, whose country is the only Arab nation on the 15-member council, introduced the draft resolution last Thursday on behalf of the 22-member Arab League.

The request for Security Council action came a week after the Israeli Cabinet approved an extension of the barrier that would protect Jewish settlements deep in the West Bank.

Before last week's decision, the barrier - a network of fences, walls, razor wire and trenches - had largely kept to the 1967 Israel-West Bank boundary known as the "Green Line," diverting in some places a few kilometres into the West Bank to enclose Jewish settlements.

Expansionist conquest wall

"It is thus abundantly clear that the establishment of the expansionist conquest wall by the occupying power is a war crime and, I reiterate, it is a crime of the same magnitude as a crime against humanity," the Palestinian UN observer, Nasser Al-Kidwa said.

Al-Kidwa said some ideas "were non-starters for us," citing attempts "to add elements in a grossly imbalanced way - specifically if somebody wants to condemn Haifa, without condemning Rafah, or condeming suicide bombings without condemning war crimes. This is nonsense."

Israel has destroyed dozens of homes and killed at least eight Palestinians in the Rafah refugee camp in southern Gaza as its troops searched for tunnels it says are used by Palestinians to smuggle in weapons from Egypt.

The United States had wanted specific language condemning the October 3 suicide attack by Islamic Jihad on a restaurant in the Israeli city of Haifa, in which 20 people were killed.

Israel's UN Ambassador Dan Gillerman praised the veto, saying the resolution "failed to draw attention to Palestinian terrorism".

- AP