UN Solemnity
On 29 November, the anniversary of the 1947 Partition Plan that set in motion modern Israel’s independence, the UN, according to its website, “solemnly” marked the “International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People” by passing six truly ridiculous resolutions by wide margins.
On 29 November, the anniversary of the 1947 Partition Plan that set in motion modern Israel’s independence, the UN, according to its website, “solemnly” marked the “International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People” by passing six truly ridiculous resolutions by wide margins.
One gem requires Israel to return to the 4 June 67 line on the Golan, ratifying Syria’s acquisition by force of territory granted to Israel by the UN. One asked the “Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People to continue to exert all efforts to promote the realization of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people.” A companion “requested the Secretary-General to continue to provide the Secretariat’s Division for Palestinian Rights with the necessary resources to ensure that it continued to carry out its program.” Yet another called for more UN spending to promote those “inalienable rights.” It’s your money, folks.
The one calling for a “peaceful resolution” of the problem sounds harmless. But the text calls on “the Quartet and other interested parties to exert all efforts and initiatives necessary to… reverse all measures taken on the ground since 28 September 2000,” meaning to reverse Israel’s resumption of security control in the disputed territories. We’d like to see them reverse the dead and maimed.
And you can’t finish beating up Israel without mentioning Jerusalem. The Assembly “deplored the transfer by some States of their diplomatic missions to that city in violation of Security Council Resolution 478 (1980).”
In the pantheon of players, you can guess who did what – the tallies were lopsided in the extreme. However, as usual, a few countries deserve special mention. Uzbekistan slipped – last year it voted against baseless attacks on Israel; this year, it abstained. Why? Costa Ricans should be proud of their government’s vote against the Jerusalem resolution, but wonder why their representative voted for Syria’s illegal annexation of Israeli territory and for Palestinian “rights” that surely would result in the destruction of Jerusalem as a city open to all people and all faiths.
The U.S. is always the bulwark of Israel’s support in these ugly sessions, along with Micronesia and the Marshall Islands, this year supported by Nauru, Palau, Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea, Tuvalu and the Solomon Islands on different votes. We sometimes complain that in “UN-speak” small countries have the same weight as large countries regardless of their ability to affect the outcome of events. In this case, we’re grateful for small countries willing at least to put their names on the line.
The best news was that the US delegation changed a longstanding policy of abstention on Jerusalem votes to a “no” vote. The Palestinian delegate pronounced himself “shocked,” and called it “a slap in the face of all Arabs, all Muslim and Christian believers, who would want to see a different situation in that holy city.” Way to go, Ambassador Negroponte. And thank you President Bush.