USA blocks UN resolution against Israel... again...
Remember how I said the USA is always protecting Israel and Israel's ethnic cleanising activites? They're at it again.
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US veto on Israel wall protest
From correspondents in New York
October 15, 2003
THE United States has vetoed a UN Security Council resolution that would have condemned Israel for building a barrier that cuts into the West Bank.
The veto came after the US suggested an alternate draft that would have called on all parties in the Middle East struggle to dismantle terrorist groups.
The United States was the only country to vote against the resolution, using its veto as one of five permanent members of the council. Four of the 15 members of the Security Council abstained: Bulgaria, Cameroon, Germany and Britain.
US Ambassador John Negroponte said the resolution "was unbalanced" and "did not further the goals of peace and security in the region".
The vote came after a fierce open debate in which about 40 countries spoke. Several speakers portrayed the wall as racist and colonialist, a blatant land-grab, worse than the Berlin Wall, and an overreaction that would turn some parts of the Palestinian territories into "open-air prisons".
Syria's UN Ambassador Fayssal Mekdad, whose country is the only Arab nation on the 15-member council, introduced the draft resolution last Thursday on behalf of the 22-member Arab League.
The request for Security Council action came a week after the Israeli Cabinet approved an extension of the barrier that would protect Jewish settlements deep in the West Bank.
After the open meeting, the Security Council adjourned and diplomats said the US was seeking changes. Negroponte has insisted that any resolution on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict must also condemn terrorist activities by Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other militant groups.
A council diplomat said the Palestinians indicated they were willing to continue discussions on the draft, but Syria forced the vote on the resolution even though it knew the US would veto it.
Israel's UN Ambassador Dan Gillerman praised the veto, saying the resolution "failed to draw attention to Palestinian terrorism".
During the open debate, almost all countries condemned the wall. Many delegates lamented that the wall crossed over the "Green Line" delineating Israel's pre-1967 boundary with the Palestinian territories and categorised it as a violation of international law, including the UN Charter and the Geneva Conventions.
Several countries said the wall would not be nearly as objectionable if it were built solely on Israeli land.
Gillerman said the barrier allowed the passage of some Palestinians and would allow greater freedom of movement for many Palestinians because Israel would remove roadblocks within the West Bank.
The Associated Press
http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,7567019%255E1702,00.html
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