General Assembly Overwhelmingly Condemns Israel’s Policies

The United Nations General Assembly voted overwhelmingly Thursday night to condemn Israel’s policies in the territories and the measures it has taken to quell the uprising.

The vote was 130-2, with 16 abstentions. Only Israel and the United States voted against it.

In the course of the debate, the representative of the Palestine Liberation Organization accused Israel of killing at least 411 Palestinians since the uprising began on Dec. 9, 1987.

But Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Johanan Bein, charged that the meeting was called only “to incite and instigate more violence and more suffering among both Israelis and Palestinian Arabs.”

The United States announced in advance of the vote that it would not support the draft resolution.

U.S. Ambassador Herbert Okun said it contained “harsh rhetoric” that can “only enflame an already embittered situation.”

Okun also charged that the resolution was “an unbalanced document condemning one of the parties without taking into account acts of violence committed by the other side.”

The resolution also called on the secretary-general of the United Nations to examine the situation in the territories and to submit “periodic reports” to the General Assembly, the first one no later than Nov. 17 of this year.

Ambassador Bein, who addressed the General Assembly before the voting, declared that as long as violence continues in the territories, “Israel will exercise its right and duty under international law to restore order in the face of violent provocation.

“We will continue to do so with maximum restraint and in full compliance with the laws enacted not by Israel, but by those that have governed this area for almost half a century, well before Israel took control of them.”