October 24, 2003

The UN takes on The Wall (Part 3)

[Bethlehem, West Bank] I'm getting a little off the purpose of my website -- and that is to share things from the area that you can't find on the international news -- but I'd like to discuss the UN and the Israeli security wall a bit more. I think it will give you a bit of insight into the daily lives of Palestinians.

After the resolution criticizing the Israeli wall was vetoed in the UN Security Council, it was taken to the UN General Assembly. As I understand it, the UN Security Council resolutions are the only ones that make much of a difference, because the General Assembly resolutions are not legally binding.

That said, the General Assembly overwhelmingly passed the resolution demanding that Israel halt the construction of the security barrier in the West Bank. The vote was passed with 144 in favor, 4 opposed and 12 members abstaining. (Those opposed were Israel, the United States, Micronesia, and the Marshall Islands.) In the past, the General Assembly has taken a similar position on Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, calling them illegal.

So the world is (almost) united in their criticism of Israeli building in the Palestinian Territories. Almost everyone says it is wrong. Even the United States has on occasion said that Israel should halt construction in the Palestinian Territories -- and they made this part of the Roadmap for Peace. Of course, the Israeli building hasn't stopped. If anything construction has only increased.

I was passing through the Bethlehem checkpoint earlier this week. I stopped to talk to an Israeli soldier who was posted on a site overlooking the settlement of Har Homa. I pointed to the settlement and asked the soldier what he thought of all the new construction going on over there. We watched as workers, trucks and equipment made their way to new buildings and new building sites. The soldier looked at me and grinned -- "I don't see any construction. Where is it? I see nothing." Then he laughed and told me that he lives in another settlement near Bethlehem. He had just gotten married and there are great financial incentives for Israelis moving to settlements in the Palestinian Territories.

OK, so what did the Israelis say about the UN General Assembly resolution? Israel's Deputy Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, said Israel would ignore the resolution. "The fence will continue being built and we will go on taking care of the security of Israel's citizens," he told Israeli Radio."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."

If the fence is about security, why couldn't it have been built on Israel's borders instead of inside the Palestinian Territories? Didn't Condoleezza Rice, President George Bush's National Security Adviser, say that it looks like an attempt to create a new border - one that would amount to more land confiscation of much of the West Bank by Israel?

So what will this passing of the UN General Assembly resolution mean for my neighbors in Palestine? Absolutely nothing. Even though the world agrees that what Israel is doing is wrong, no one does anything about it. So everyday more land is taken from Palestinians. And the wall continues to be built. And the settlements expand. And Palestinian frustration grows.

For more Wall information,

Palestinian Environmental NGOs Network (PENGON)

Oct 16, 2003 Americans Killed / The UN takes on The Wall (Part 2)
Oct 11, 2003 The UN takes on The Wall
April 04, 2003 The Wall
Jan 03, 2003 Abu Dis Wall