Palestinians seek UN vote blaming Israel
NEW YORK: The Palestinians and their supporters are hoping an emergency meeting of the UN General Assembly today will adopt a resolution deploring what it calls Israel’s “excessive use of force”, particularly in Gaza, and seeking recommendations to protect Palestinian civilians. The US is demanding changes.
Arab and Islamic nations decided to go to the 193-member assembly, where there are no vetoes, after the US veto of virtually the same resolution in the Security Council on June 1.
US Ambassador Nikki Haley called that Kuwait-sponsored resolution “grossly onesided” for criticising the use of force by Israel while not mentioning the Islamic militant group Hamas, which rules Gaza.
Haley sent a letter to all UN member states yesterday calling the proposed resolution “fundamentally imbalanced”.
She proposed an amendment condemning Hamas for firing rockets into Israel and inciting violence along the Gaza-Israel border fence.
The proposal also would condemn the diversion of resources in Gaza to building tunnels to infiltrate Israel and equipment to fire rockets and express “grave concern” at the destruction of the Kerem Shalom crossing point to Israel “by actors in Gaza”.
The letter said the amendment would be voted on before the resolution.
The Palestinians sought a Security Council resolution after Israel’s military killed civilians during mass protests in Gaza aimed at the border blockade imposed by Israel and Egypt in 2007 after Hamas overran the territory.
Since the near-weekly protests began on March 30, more than 120 Palestinians have been killed and over 3 800 wounded by Israeli army fire.
The marchers have also pressed demands for a “right of return” for descendants of Palestinian refugees to ancestral homes in what is now Israel. More than 700 000 Pal- estinians were expelled or fled in the 1948 Mideast war over Israel’s creation. Two-thirds of Gaza’s two million residents are descendants of refugees.
The draft resolution demands that Israeli forces stop “any excessive, disproportionate and indiscriminate force”.
The draft asks Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to make proposals within 60 days “on ways and means for ensuring the safety, protection and well-being of the Palestinian civilian population under Israeli occupation”, including “recommendations regarding an international protection mechanism”. – Associated Press/African News Agency (ANA)