ISRAEL/GAZA: Israeli and Palestinian officials express dissatisfaction with U.N. resolution as Gaza violence continues

Israeli and Palestinian officials expressed on Saturday (November 18) their discontent at the latest developments in the United Nations regarding the conflict, while Gaza violence continued. On Friday (November 17), the U.N. General Assembly voted overwhelmingly to deplore a deadly Israeli artillery attack in Gaza, six days after the United States vetoed a similar measure in the Security Council. The assembly voted 156-7 with six abstentions to approve a resolution put forward by Arab states that also urged the Jewish state to immediately withdraw its troops from Gaza. Palestinian U.N. Observer Riyad Mansour told the assembly that last Saturday's veto by Washington, Israel's closest ally, sent a message to the Jewish state "that it can continue to commit crimes and acts of outright aggression with impunity," A spokeswoman for the Israeli Foreign Ministry said that the U.N. resolution was not surprising since the general assembly had long became a political platform for the Arab states. "It is a one sided decision, it totally ignores the Palestinian continuing missiles attacks on Israel. It also ignores the Palestinian cynical use of their own people as human shields," Zehavit Ben Hillel, a Foreign Ministry spokeswoman told Reuters in the coastal city of Tel Aviv on Saturday. "We have to wait and see where the proceedings are going to go, but I can say there is yet another attempt by some forces in the U.N. to take the organisation hostage, and deny Israel's right to exists," Ben Hillel added when was asked whether Israel will cooperate with an investigation committee should one will be formed. The November 8 shelling of Beit Hanoun killed 19 civilians, including seven children and five women. The resolution called for the immediate cessation of all acts of violence and terror by both the Palestinian and Israeli sides and asked Secretary-General Kofi Annan to set up a fact-finding mission to look into the Beit Hanoun attack. Voting "no" were the United States, Israel, Australia, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru and Palau. Abstaining were Canada, Ivory Coast, Papua New Guinea, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu. U.S. Ambassador John Bolton said the assembly resolution, like the one before the Security Council, was a "one-sided, unbalanced" text that raised questions about the world body's ability to confront global problems. Arab diplomats said they took particular umbrage at Israeli U.N. Ambassador Dan Gillerman for cautioning delegates a "yes" vote would make them "accomplices to terror." Palestinian Cabinet Spokesman Ghazi Hamad said the move reaffirmed his belief that the U.S. shows bias when addressing the Middle East conflict. "First of all I think the United States should change their policy should change their strategy in the Middle East. If they want to be an honest mediator and to be acceptable by all parts in the Middle East, because if the United states continue to support Israel and to support settlements and assassinations and demolishing homes, I think they will not reach a point to achieve peace and security in this region," Hamad told Reuters in his Gaza office on Saturday. While the vote was largely symbolic, simply expressing the will of world governments, Arab states took the matter to the 192-nation assembly because Washington has no veto there. Gillerman said Palestinian rocket fire and the Palestinians' elected Hamas government, which refuses to acknowledge Israel or renounce violence, were to blame for the continuing Israeli military action in Gaza. The call for a U.N. inquiry into the attack delayed assembly action for hours as the U.N. body's budget committee debated whether the effort would duplicate a similar mission ordered by the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva. In the Gaza Strip, violence continued on Saturday morning, as Israeli soldiers shot dead a Palestinian gunman and injured two others, residents and hospital officials said. Thousands of men marched through the streets of Beit Lahiya in a funeral procession for the dead militant, firing their rifles into the air and chanting 'God is great'. Earlier on Saturday, more than a dozen Israeli tanks and armoured vehicles entered Beit Lahiya in an operation the army said was aimed at stopping Palestinian militants from firing rockets into Israel. Residents said one Palestinian gunman was killed by Israeli troops who had taken over a house in the town. Hospital officials identified the man as a 24-year-old militant from the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine. An army spokeswoman said special forces operating in the area opened fire when they were approached by an armed gunman. The operation comes three days after a rocket fired from Gaza killed a woman in the southern Israeli town of Sderot, prompting right-wing Israeli politicians to call for a major push into the coastal strip. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has said Israel would find and kill those responsible for the rocket attacks. But he said the rockets could not be stopped in "one fell swoop", appearing to rule out a massive military push. Israel quit Gaza last year after more than 38 years of occupation.

ITN Source | November 18, 2006

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