The Wall: Israel thumbs nose

JERUSALEM – Israel’s construction of its West Bank barrier went ahead full force yesterday, hours after the UN General Assembly overwhelmingly passed a resolution calling for the structure to be torn down in compliance with a world court ruling.

Palestinian cabinet minister Saeb Erekat said it was “unfortunate” Israel was ignoring the non-binding ruling handed down earlier this month by the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands, as well as Tuesday’s UN resolution. “I hope that the international community will continue to exert every effort to make Israel comply with the UN resolutions,” Erekat said.Bulldozers and backhoes worked yesterday in Abu Dis – a Palestinian suburb of Jerusalem.Workers raised eight-metre-high concrete walls that are rapidly separating the Palestinian area from Jerusalem, a city which Abu Dis is highly dependent on for employment and other services.The 150-6 vote late Tuesday, with 10 abstentions, reflected the widespread international opposition to the 685 kilometre-long barrier which Israel says is needed to protect its citizens from suicide bombings.Palestinians contend the barrier is a land grab meant to deprive them of a state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.In some areas where the barrier has already been built – about one-quarter of it is complete – Palestinians have been cut off from their lands, schools and other towns and villages.The UN resolution, like the world court’s advisory opinion, is not legally binding.Both have symbolic value as international statements of support for the barrier’s destruction.But Israel has over the years defied, ignored and brushed off UN resolutions, including ones calling for it to end its occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.Raanan Gissin, an adviser to prime minister Ariel Sharon, said Tuesday’s resolution “signifies the bankruptcy of the United Nations” and is reflective of the “tyranny of the majority” in the General Assembly.Israel always loses General Assembly votes, Gissin said, because the Arab world has an automatic majority.The fate of Tuesday’s resolution is the same as that of a decision passed by the General Assembly in 1975 that compared Zionism to racism, he said.”Where is that resolution today? Somewhere at the bottom of the garbage can of history,” Gissin said.- Nampa-AP”I hope that the international community will continue to exert every effort to make Israel comply with the UN resolutions,” Erekat said.Bulldozers and backhoes worked yesterday in Abu Dis – a Palestinian suburb of Jerusalem.Workers raised eight-metre-high concrete walls that are rapidly separating the Palestinian area from Jerusalem, a city which Abu Dis is highly dependent on for employment and other services.The 150-6 vote late Tuesday, with 10 abstentions, reflected the widespread international opposition to the 685 kilometre-long barrier which Israel says is needed to protect its citizens from suicide bombings.Palestinians contend the barrier is a land grab meant to deprive them of a state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.In some areas where the barrier has already been built – about one-quarter of it is complete – Palestinians have been cut off from their lands, schools and other towns and villages.The UN resolution, like the world court’s advisory opinion, is not legally binding.Both have symbolic value as international statements of support for the barrier’s destruction.But Israel has over the years defied, ignored and brushed off UN resolutions, including ones calling for it to end its occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.Raanan Gissin, an adviser to prime minister Ariel Sharon, said Tuesday’s resolution “signifies the bankruptcy of the United Nations” and is reflective of the “tyranny of the majority” in the General Assembly.Israel always loses General Assembly votes, Gissin said, because the Arab world has an automatic majority.The fate of Tuesday’s resolution is the same as that of a decision passed by the General Assembly in 1975 that compared Zionism to racism, he said.”Where is that resolution today? Somewhere at the bottom of the garbage can of history,” Gissin said.- Nampa-AP