Just another brick in the wall
2003-10-22 09:58
Jerusalem - Israel will push on with the building of a controversial West Bank separation barrier despite a UN resolution demanding it halt construction, Industry Minister Ehud Olmert said Wednesday.
"The security fence will continue to be built," Olmert, who is number two in Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's government, told public radio.
The UN General Assembly voted late on Tuesday by an overwhelming majority to demand Israel "stop and reverse" construction of the barrier which Ariel Sharon's government claims is designed to prevent infiltration of Palestinian suicide bombers into Israel.
Palestinians regard it as an attempt to pre-empt the borders of any two state-settlement to the conflict.
The resolution stating that the project contradicts international law, passed by a vote of 144-4. It is not binding.
Systematically hostile
"We do not take into account the automatic UN majority which is systematically hostile towards us," said Olmert.
"The whole world is against us and the United States and I am proud to be on the side of the Americans," he added.
Olmert said that the resolution was not binding and expressed satisfaction that the "European Union prevented a more extreme text".
Israel, the United States, Micronesia and the Marshall Islands were the only countries to vote against the resolution. Another 12 countries abstained.
The text said UN member-states were particularly concerned that the route chosen by Israel for the barrier "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 called on both Israel and the Palestinians to fulfil their obligations under the "roadmap," an internationally-backed peace plan which aims to create a Palestinian state by 2005.
It also condemned suicide bombings and their recent intensification and urged 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, was called upon not to take any action "undermining trust, including deportations and attacks on civilians and extra-judicial killings."