U.S. Vetoes U.N. Resolution Condemning Israel on Arab Areas

For the second time in four months the United States on Friday vetoed a Security Council resolution condemning Israel’s actions in the occupied Arab territories.

The United States said the draft, supported by the other 14 members of the council, was unbalanced.

The United States vetoed a similar council resolution in February. Last month, it blocked the issuance of a council statement on the same subject because it did not include an appeal for restraint by Palestinians as well as Israel.

The United States proposed a number of amendments to the latest draft that were not accepted by the seven nonaligned members of the council who sponsored the draft: Algeria, Colombia, Ethiopia, Malaysia, Nepal, Senegal and Yugoslavia.

U.S. Ambassador Thomas R. Pickering said before the vote that there was much in the resolution with which Washington agrees but that other elements are unacceptable.

“It is unbalanced in that it makes sweeping condemnations of Israeli policies and practice without any reference to any of the serious acts of violence by the other side.

“It appears to be oblivious of the political and security context in the occupied territories. Most specifically, the text does not condemn violence from all quarters nor does it affirm that all parties have a responsibility to help reduce tensions.”

The vetoed resolution would have deplored “those policies and practices of Israel . . . which violate the human rights of the Palestinian people in the occupied territory, as well as vigilante attacks against Palestinian towns and villages and desecration of the Holy Koran.”

In the Middle East, meanwhile, soldiers shot and killed a Palestinian teen-ager in a clash in Bethlehem, and the entire Gaza Strip remained under curfew for the sixth day, the longest curfew since the start of the Palestinian uprising 18 months ago.

Despite the measure imposed on the 650,000 Palestinians living in Gaza, dozens of residents defied the curfew to attend Muslim Sabbath prayers in neighborhood mosques, Palestinian sources said.