The United States, for the third time this year, vetoed a Security Council resolution critical of Israel on Friday.
The resolution, supported by the other 14 members of the council, demanded that Israel allow the return of eight Palestinian activists deported from the West Bank and Gaza Strip to Lebanon on April 11.
The resolution also condemned Israel’s use of live ammunition against Palestinian rioters and called on Israel to abide by the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949, which protects the rights of inhabitants of occupied territories. Israel claims the convention does not apply to the territories it administers.
The U.S. delegate, Herbert Okun, criticized the resolution as “redundant and inappropriate,” as well as one-sided. “Its broad and sweeping condemnation for Israel contains not a scintilla of balance,” the American envoy charged.
Earlier this year, the United States vetoed two resolutions critical of Israel’s handling of Palestinian unrest. But it supported a resolution in January protesting Israel’s expulsion of four Palestinians from the West Bank on Jan. 13.
Of the five permanent members of the Security Council, the British delegate, John Birch, bore down hardest on Israel. He said, “World opinion has been shocked and disgusted by the widespread suffering of the civilian population” in the territories.
The Soviet delegate was uncharacteristically mild in his speech. Aleksandr Belonogov stressed the “balance of interests of all parties concerned, both Arabs, including the Palestinian people, as well as Israel.” His remarks seemed to reflect the conciliatory tone toward Israel adopted recently by Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.
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.
