UN demands Israel stop building wall

THE United Nations General Assembly demanded yesterday that Israel halt building work on a barrier jutting deep into the West Bank and pull down the section already built.

A resolution was overwhelmingly approved, with 144 in favour, four against and 12 abstentions.

Israeli officials said construction of the fence would continue, while Palestinians applauded the UN decision.

The United States, which vetoed a UN Security Council resolution last week that would have declared the barrier illegal, voted against the General Assembly resolution.

The resolution isn't legally binding, but after more than six hours of negotiations, it not only won support from the European Union but was submitted for a vote by the 15-nation bloc, which is one of the sponsors of the "road map" peace plan.

In return for EU support, the Palestinians and their supporters agreed to drop a second resolution that would have asked the International Court of Justice at The Hague for an advisory opinion on the legality of the barrier.

But the resolution raises the possibility of going to the court if Israel doesn't comply with the demand to dismantle the barrier a prospect that angered Israel's UN Ambassador Dan Gillerman.

Threats to turn the UN's principal legal body "into a political weapon for one party to a conflict is a dangerous precedent", Mr Gillerman warned. "It should be rejected out of hand, not legitimised by pandering in a negotiating process."

Israel vice-premier Ehud Olmert said Israel would not stop building the barrier.

"We have to worry about Israel's security and it is clear that we will not act according to the instructions of a hostile, automatic majority .... which has always acted against Israel," he said.

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat called the UN decision a victory for peace. "The world has just sent a powerful message that the shortest way to peace is not through settlements and walls, but rather through a meaningful peace process that will end the Israeli occupation that began in 1967," he said.

The resolution requests Secretary General Kofi Annan to submit periodic reports on Israel's compliance, with the first due within one month. Once the report is received, it says, "further actions should be considered, if necessary, within the United Nations".

Mr Gillerman demanded to know whether any nation "seriously thinks it legitimate for the secretary general to focus a report on Israeli security measures but not on Palestinian violations and terrorism that necessitate those measures".

The Palestinian UN observer, Nasser Al-Kidwa, accused Mr Gillerman of "intimidation and blackmail", stressing the political and legal importance of the resolution.

The resolution "demands that Israel stop and reverse the construction of the wall in the occupied Palestinian territory, including in and around East Jerusalem, which is in departure of the Armistice Line of 1949 and is in contradiction to relevant provisions of international law".

To get the 15 EU nations to support the resolution, the Palestinians and their supporters agreed to eliminate a statement calling the barrier "illegal" and substitute the phrase calling it "in contradiction".

The resolution added a condemnation of Palestinian suicide bombings mentioning the October 3 attack in Haifa that killed 21 Israelis.

It also added a condemnation of the recent bomb attack in the Gaza Strip which killed three American security officers and deplored so-called "extrajudicial killings" by the Israelis, particularly Monday's attack in Gaza which Mr Al-Kidwa said killed 12 Palestinians and injured 90 others.

Meanwhile, the violence continued as Israeli troops shot and killed three Palestinian militants in a series of raids and clashes in the West Bank. Two Jewish settlers were wounded in the violence.