Israeli diplomats at the United Nations expressed disappointment Wednesday over the U.S. decision to abstain from voting on a Security Council resolution, adopted Tuesday night, deploring Israel’s handling of disturbances in the Gaza Strip and West Bank.
The vote in the 15-member Security Council was 14 in favor with no objections. Israeli diplomats said they regretted that the United States did not veto this “one-sided and unbalanced resolution,” by voting against it. The United States is one of the five permanent members of the Security Council and as such enjoys veto power over any resolution in the council.
The resolution adopted Tuesday night states that the Security Council “strongly deplores those policies and practices of Israel, the occupying power, which violate the human rights of the Palestinian people in the occupied territories, in particular the opening of fire by the Israeli army, resulting in the killing and wounding of defenseless Palestinian civilians.”
The resolution calls on Israel to adhere to the 1949 Geneva convention on conduct of an occupying power “and to desist forthwith from its policies and practices that are in violation of the provisions of the convention.”
It also requests that the secretary general of the United Nations, Javier Perez de Cuellar, “examine the present situation in the occupied territories by all means available to him, as well as submit a report no later than January 1988” on how to ensure the safety of the Palestinians in the territories.
LANGUAGE SOFTENED
In order to avoid an American veto of the resolution, the Arab countries and the Palestine Liberation Organization agreed to softer language, dropping their original request that Israel be “condemned” and that the Security Council dispatch a special U.N. representative to the territories to investigate the situation.
The PLO’s attempts to stiffen the resolution with sharper language resulted in at least two postponements of the Security Council vote.
Some diplomats suggested that the PLO was interested at one point in a U.S. veto as a way of demonstrating a close association between Israel’s policies and Washington.
Ambassador Yohanan Bein, Israel’s deputy permanent representative, said, in an address to the Security Council before the vote Tuesday night, that the resolution does not constitute “a reasonable and balanced attempt to address the issue at hand.”
He charged that the riots were instigated by the PLO in order to “prolong and justify a one-sided political debate” against Israel.
Bein substituted for Ambassador Benjamin Netanyahu, who is in Israel for a three-week visit.
‘GENERALIZED CRITICISM’
Herbert Okun, representing the United States in the absence of Ambassador Vernon Walters, told the Security Council that United States was abstaining on the resolution, rather than voting for it, because it contained “generalized criticism of Israeli policies and practices.”
He also noted that the resolution ignored provocations to Israel’s security forces. Israeli diplomats contended that the resolution completely ignored Israeli victims of terror in the territories.
The United States abstained, in December 1986, on a Security Council resolution deploring Israel for shooting civilians at Bir Zeit University in the West Bank. It also abstained in September 1985, when the Security Council censured Israel for its raid on the PLO headquarter in Tunisia.
In Jerusalem, meanwhile, the Foreign Ministry issued a strongly worded statement Wednesday, in response to the U.S. abstention and the concern expressed by President Reagan over the unrest in the territories.
“There is neither a foundation, nor justification to blame Israel in connection with the recent difficult and regrettable events in Judea, Samaria and Gaza,” the Foreign Ministry said.
“Israel rejects any attempt to blame her and the instigators of the unrest equally,” the statement read, adding that Israel hopes that the United States will take special care not to adopt such views which would be interpreted by “extremist and violent elements” as a demonstration of support.
Israel will continue to bear its responsibility toward the Jewish and Arab residents, to restore order, and to aim toward mutual understanding, a dialogue and peace with its neighbors, the statement concluded.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
