The International Conference on Population in Mexico City, sponsored by the United Nations, concluded last night with the adoption of a revised program that includes a new provision condemning the “establishment of settlements in territories occupied by force.”
The new provision did not mention Israel by name but it was clearly aimed at the Israeli settlements in the West Bank and other territories Israel has been holding since 1967.
The anti-Israel provision was included in the final report of the conference despite the strong opposition of the United States and Israel. The two countries tried to eliminate the settlements provision but their efforts failed by a vote of 87-2 (Israel and the United States), with 26 abstentions.
The revised program with the anti-Israeli provision was adopted by a consensus vote of the 149 countries at the conference.
MEASURE CAUSED A BITTER DISPUTE
The measure against Israel was a cause for a bitter dispute since the conference opened August 6. The chairman of the U.S. delegation at the conference, James Buckley, termed the settlement issue “entirely irrelevant and extraneous to the business of this conference.”
The new provision asserts that the establishment of settlements in occupied territories is “illegal and condemned by the international community. “Seven Arab countries — Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Tunisia — proposed originally to spell out Israel’s name for condemnation, but their amendment was withdrawn. However, the wording of the anti-Israeli provision that finally was accepted made it clear that it condemns Israeli settlements without mentioning Israel’s name.
Diplomats at the United Nations told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that the provision against settlements has further ” politicized”the operation of the UN agencies.
The settlements provision was one of 88 new recommendations adopted by the conference to revise the ” plan of action” adopted by the previous UN population conference in Bucharest, Rumania, 10 years ago.
CORRECTION
The August 14 Bulletin inadvertently misquoted a statement by the National Jewish Resource Center. It should have read: ” Such an amendment will be offensive to millions of Jews in the diaspora who identify with non-Orthodox religious movements,” not governments.
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