Tuesday, July 27, 2004
New Low for UN
The General Assembly resolution calling for Israel to tear down it's security fence is a starkly political affair.
The Chirac-led European bloc has clearly cashed in on an opportunity broaden the fissure separating it ideologically from the United States.
For Israelis on both the left and right, the resolution emphatically underlines the tyranny of the majority at the UN that has dogged the world's only Jewish state for decades.
Several articles by Aluf Benn in the left-centrist Ha'aretz newspaper cover some of the core issues:
Analysis
Israel summons EU ambassadors
International Court of Justice ruling
Some features of the ruling noted by Benn include:
(1) "The only dissenting voice was that of the American justice on the panel, Thomas Buergenthal. He was supported, however, by the Dutch judge, Pieter Kooijmans, in his rejection of the call for all countries to act against the project. The other 13 judges ruled in favor of this call."
The other judges included a Chinese judge who led the panel, and other judges from Islamic countries. In other words, there is a strong suggestion here that judges may have split along political lines.
(2) The ICJ ruled that the fence: "cannot be justified by ... the requirements of national security or public order" (!, precisely the reason the fence has been erected).
(3) The ICJ also ruled that "the barrier could become tantamount to annexation of Palestinian land". That seems to be an entirely hypothetical argument rejected by Israel as well as every nation on the planet.
Absolutely noone is disputing that in the absence of acts of terrorism the fence can come down. The idea of the fence has only arisen as a - legitimate, plausible and so far very effective - defence to acts of terrorism.
(4) The ICJ said that the fence "violated international humanitarian law by infringing on Palestinians' freedom of movement and freedom to seek employment, education and health."
That is quite an unbelievable statement. It completely ignores the basic right to life that is the very essence of all humanitarian law, which Israel is clearly aiming to protect on behalf of its own citizens by erecting the fence.
The statement also seems rather specious in view of the range of variables, many very positive and arguably on balance so overall, for Palestinians in the territories.
