AP Photo/Lefteris PitarakisPalestinian soccer players practice near Israel's separation barrier in the West Bank town of Abu Dis on Tuesday.
Posted on 07/20/2004 5:28:39 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
UNITED NATIONS (AP) - The U.N. General Assembly overwhelmingly adopted a resolution Tuesday demanding that Israel comply with a world court decision and tear down the barrier it is building to seal off the West Bank. The vote was 150 in favor, 6 opposed - including the United States - and 10 abstentions.
The assembly's vote, like the opinion of the International Court of Justice, is not legally binding, but both have symbolic value as international statements of condemnation for the barrier.
The 191-member world body voted after lengthy negotiations between the Arab League and the European Union which resulted in a revised text that was accepted by both groups.
The court, as well as the resolution, demand that the barrier be dismantled and reparations be paid to Palestinians harmed by its construction.
Israel has refused to recognize the world court ruling, saying it has no authority to deal with the issue and has ordered construction to go on.
The Israeli Supreme Court, however, has ordered the army to change the route of the barrier in a 20-mile stretch near Jerusalem, saying it was causing too much hardship on the local Palestinian population.
Israel's U.N. Ambassador Dan Gillerman called the resolution "one-sided and totally counterproductive" and said construction of the barrier will continue in compliance with the requirements of international law as decided by Israel's Supreme Court.
"It is simply outrageous to respond with such vigor to a measure that saves lives and responds with such casual indifference and apathy to the ongoing campaign of Palestinian terrorism that takes lives. This is not justice but a perversion of justice," he said.
The Palestinians say the current route of the wall amounts to a land grab, because parts of the barrier are being built on West Bank land that Israel conquered in the 1967 Middle East war. Israel says the fence is needed to keep out suicide bombers.
AP Photo/Lefteris PitarakisPalestinian soccer players practice near Israel's separation barrier in the West Bank town of Abu Dis on Tuesday.
I expect you've seen this bit of insanity, but just in case.
Unbelievable, freaking unbelievable to see a UN that will not even allow a country to protect itself with a fence much less military force.
What do they want them to do, kill themselves.
Idiot UN
Perhaps Israel can provide their masonry services along our southern border.
Come to think of it, our northern border could also use some help.
The Arabs wanted the text to authorize killing the Jews and taking their possessions.
The Europeans wanted the text to authorize taking the Jews' possessions first and killing them afterwards.
They compromised with text that authorizes either.
"Perhaps Israel can provide their masonry services along our southern border."
The UN would probably overrule it
Yes.
FMCDH(BITS)
Palestinian U.N. observer Nasser al-Kidwa (R) looks up at the voting board at the United Nations (news - web sites) General assembly in New York on July 20, 2004. The U.N. General Assembly voted overwhelmingly to demand that Israel obey a World Court ruling and tear down its West Bank barrier. The vote in the 191-nation assembly was 150-6, with 10 abstentions. (Chip East/Reuters)
What's funny - I actually find it funny, in a tragic way - is that this type of thing gets reported with a straight face.
Look, even if this passage is true, the "land grab" occurred back in 1967. Yes, Israel took that land. In a war. That kind of thing tends to happen in wars. (Which Israel didn't even start, in this case.) Now they are building a fence around that land, which they took (in a war - as happens in wars), to protect the people living in their country (which, yes, now includes that additional land, that they took (in a war (which tends to happen to the victor in a war))).
The Palestinian position is and has always been that they want that land "back". Well, fight a war and take it back you idiots. Otherwise SHUT THE HELL UP because I'm sick and tired of hearing about you.
But by calling Israel defending land it already took a "land grab", what the UN is effectively on the record here saying is that they are rooting for the Palestinians to finish and win the 1967 Israeli-Arab war. Whether or not they realize it.
And this resolution should be viewed accordingly.
If Israel had the Ba--s and i would i would take out IRAN's reactors tonight! That's telling the UN to go F--K themselves.Don't they get it? Never again means NEVER AGAIN
The Palestinians say the current route of the wall amounts to a land grab, because parts of the barrier are being built on West Bank land that Israel conquered in the 1967 Middle East war. Israel says the fence is needed to keep out suicide bombers.
I say, move the wall out as far as the border with Egypt, Syria, Lebanon etc.
Now THAT would be an Israel! Oh yeah, capital Jeruselem!
A Palestinian man watches the construction works of Israel's 'security' barrier in the West Bank town of Abu Dis on the edge of Jerusalem.(AFP/File/Gali Tibbon)
The United States and Israel = 2
Who were the other 4?
BTW--proud of our (US) vote!
Good reason to leave it in place.
Actually, this is one of those problems that do not allow half-answers. To do too little is suicide.
Israel must choose a defensible border, and seal it. This is what they have done with the erection of the wall, and nothing short of this will work. It has the effect of freeing them from constant attacks that have killed so many.
It has the secondary effect of turning the arabs inward on themselves, and hurrying the collapse of the west bank experiment. An isolated, autonomous arab west bank cannot work, and can't be anything other than what it has been, a lawless enclave. An arab west bank cut off from Israeli jobs, Israeli markets, and without Israel as the focus of its rage is a west bank that must implode, and that is what we are seeing.
By definition, jewish palestine is Israel, and arab palestine is Jordan. That land that is not claimed and defended by Israel is Jordan. Cut off from Israel by their own actions, the west bank arabs have no future except to look toward Jordan. Jordan is their future. There will never be an independent West Bank.
Build that wall!
"U.N. resolution directs Israel to remove barrier"
Israel Knesset directs the 150 affirmative voting nations to pull out of New York and set up their anti-semetic $hit in some backwater country such as Swaziland...let the diplomats have fun buggying down the streets paved with manure instead of living high on the hog along the lights of Broadway.
Have no doubt.
They have a pair and bombs as well. They busted Iraq's facility long time ago (memory hole?)
The Israeli's do not play at it
Yes, in that Israeli masons have this tendency to build walls miles into territory that does not belong to them -- our southern border would end up going through Mexico City.
Other than that, they do build those "fences" high, don't they?
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