UN flays Israeli settlement project

Israel, the United States and Micronesia, were the only nations to oppose the resolution and, while most European nations, Japan and Canada gave their support, many of those countries remain wary of tougher measures against Israel.

Fourteen nations, including Russia, Germany, Australia and several Central American and Baltic states, abstained.

Earlier, frustrated with Israel’s refusal to abandon the housing project, Arab and Muslim countries had asked the General Assembly on Tuesday to urge member states to impose economic sanctions against the Jewish state.

This was the third time the Arabs, along with Indonesia and Malaysia, approached the General Assembly to build international pressure against Israel’s decision to construct the 6,500-unit Jewish housing project in an area of Jerusalem that the Palestinians want as a future capital.

United States ambassador Bill Richardson reiterated US opposition to the Har Homa project but said he would vote against the resolution because it would “undermine rather than build trust and confidence the negotiating parties need.”

“We meet in this resumed session … to prove that no country is above international law,” Palestinian delegate Nasser Al-Kidwa said. “The time is approaching when Israel will have to decide whether it is a member of the family of nations or outside that family.”

But Israel’s new ambassador, Dore Gold, accused the Palestinians of reneging on their commitments under the peace process and denounced the UN for favouring the Arab side. “Let no member of this Assembly delude himself that this session will in any way advance prospects for peace in our region,” Gold said. “To the contrary, prejudging issues agreed to be negotiated, focusing on allegations of breaches by Israel while ignoring fundamental violations by the Palestinian side, and sidestepping the agreed frameworks for resolutions of disputes can only weaken the chances for peace,” the ambassador added.

The resolution, which would be non-binding, would call on member states to actively discourage activities which directly contribute to any construction or development of Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory, including Jerusalem. The first draft recommended an outright ban on importing goods produced in those areas. It would have also urged member states not to import goods produced or manufactured in settlements and in Jerusalem.

But the sponsors removed it from the final draft in hopes of winning more support. Instead, the resolution demanded that Israel identify those goods produced in those areas. Richardson said such measures amount to a demand for a “partial economic boycott of Israel” and run contrary to a basic building block of the peace process, the pledges of the negotiating parties to build economic ties as a means of advancing the process.”

In March, the United States used its security council veto twice to block resolutions against the project. Following those vetoes, the General Assembly voted overwhelmingly to condemn the project, which the Israelis call Har Homa and the Arabs refer to as Jebel Abu Ghnem.

Last month, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said the Har Homa project poses a serious threat to the peace process. In a report, he said the project is seen as the final step toward the isolation of Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank.” He said the project was widely interpreted to be part of Israel’s plan of fully incorporating east Jerusalem as part of the “unified, eternal capital of the state of Israel.”