U.N. Denounces Israel’s Barrier

The General Assembly overwhelmingly approved a nonbinding resolution Tuesday demanding that Israel bow to a world court ruling and tear down the barrier it is constructing in the West Bank.

Israel immediately condemned the U.N. resolution, and the U.S. called it a distraction from Mideast peace efforts.

The vote was 150 nations in favor, six opposed and 10 abstaining. Besides Israel and the U.S., the other “no” votes came from Australia, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia and Palau.

Abstaining were Cameroon, Canada, El Salvador, Nauru, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tonga, Uganda, Uruguay and Vanuatu.

The vote, which had been postponed Monday, was delayed more than three hours Tuesday evening while members of the European Union and the Arab League argued over amendments to soften the language against Israel. In the end, all 25 EU members voted in favor of the resolution.

Although the measure is nonbinding, it increases international pressure on Israel.

After the vote, Israeli Ambassador Dan Gillerman attacked the measure as “one-sided and totally counterproductive.”

“Thank God that the fate of Israel and of the Jewish people is not decided in this hall,” Gillerman said.

Israel has insisted that it needs the 437-mile barrier to keep out suicide bombers.

Gillerman told reporters after the vote that construction of the divider would continue. “Israel will continue to do what it must do to protect its citizens.”

The resolution was prompted by a July 9 nonbinding opinion of the International Court of Justice in The Hague, which ruled that the barrier restricted Palestinian freedom of movement and threatened a “de facto annexation” of Palestinian lands.

U.S. Deputy Ambassador James B. Cunningham, addressing the General Assembly after the vote, called the resolution “unbalanced.” He said that the world court’s ruling was based on information dating to last year, but that the situation had changed since then.

Cunningham noted that Israel’s Supreme Court had ruled June 30 that part of the barrier’s planned route would violate the rights of Palestinians. The Israeli court ordered officials to change the route, and they have said they will comply.

The barrier, which is about one-third complete, is a combination of wire fences, concrete walls, trenches, roads and surveillance gear in and around the West Bank.

Nasser Kidwa, the Palestinian permanent observer at the U.N., thanked the assembly for its action and called the vote perhaps the most important measure since the 1947 resolution that divided Palestine into separate Jewish and Arab states.