Sat, Jul 17, 2004 page6

• UN vote on West Bank wall nears

  • REUTERS
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  The UN General Assembly was to take up yesterday a draft resolution demanding that Israel obey a World Court ruling and tear down its West Bank wall, but diplomats say said a vote may not come until next week.week. Arab states want broad support for the resolution drafted by Palestinian UN observer Nasser al-Kidwa.

  But officials of the 25-nation EU are unhappy with the text as now written and will not be pushed into a decision. Al-Kidwa and other Arab envoys have been meeting all week with diplomats from the Netherlands, the current EU president, to discuss what changes Europe would need to vote "yes" yesterday's emergency session of the 191-nation assembly.

  Search for consensus

  

  Israel's separation barrier is pictured yesterday as it passes near the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Abu Dis.

  PHOTO: AFP

  But it took EU delegates until Thursday afternoon to reach consensus within their own ranks on a list of demands. That paper was sent off to EU capitals for overnight approval.

  "We will not be rushed. So it's not realistic to expect a vote [yesterday]," said a key EU diplomat involved in the talks.

  Arab envoys have painted the vote as a referendum on the force of international law, while Israel and its chief ally, the US, argue that the World Court, known formally as the International Court of Justice, ignored legitimate Israeli security concerns and was undermining the peace process.

  Only temporary

  Israel says the wall -- a combination of razor-tipped fencing and concrete that is still under construction -- is temporary and is needed to keep out suicide bombers.

  Palestinians see it as a land grab that would thwart the establishment of a Palestinian state.

  Even without the EU, UN diplomats said the Palestinian resolution would easily win a majority of those voting.

  But Arab states hoped to keep abstentions and "no" votes to a minimum, to bolster an expected later plea for sanctions against Israel in case the Jewish state ignores the ruling, as it has vowed to do, on grounds it is only an advisory opinion.

  In addition, the EU bloc would bring along with it as many as 25 other countries, diplomats said.

  "It's all about the EU, which is considered the moral compass at the United Nations," said an envoy close to the talks.

  Not a victory

  "When the Palestinians attract primarily Arab and African votes, they don't regard this as a victory," the envoy said.

  The UN assembly agreed to meet after the court, the top UN legal forum, said in an "advisory opinion" last week that the planned 600km barrier violates international law by cutting into West Bank land occupied and dotted with settlements by Israel since the 1967 Middle East War.

  The Palestinian draft would affirm "the illegality of any territorial acquisition resulting from the threat or use of force" and would demand that Israel dismantle the wall and pay reparations for any damage caused by its construction.

  Geneva convention

  It would also ask Switzerland, as keeper of the Fourth Geneva Convention, to convene a meeting of parties to the treaty to ensure it was being observed.

  The 1949 pact deals with the protection of civilians in time of war. A key provision bars governments from building settlements on land acquired by force.

  EU diplomats want the draft to cite Israeli security needs and the obligations of both sides under the road map to peace set out by the quartet of Middle East mediators -- the US, EU, UN and Russia.
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