UN General Assembly Demands Israel Fully Withdraw From Syrian Golan

UN General Assembly demands Israel fully withdraw from Syrian Golan

http://www.arabicnews.com/ansub/Dail...005120201.html

Syria-Israel-UN, Politics, 12/2/2005

The UN General Assembly demanded Israel to fully withdraw from occupied Syrian Golan to the line of 4th June 1967, in accordance with the related UN resolutions.

The assembly declared in a decision adopted during its session held Thursday that Israel refused to implement any UN resolution, including resolution no 497, which stipulate for total withdrawal from the Syrian Golan.

Occupying the Syrian Golan and imposing the Israeli will and laws there are null and have no legitimacy at all, the decision said.

The assembly called upon all related sides to resume the peace process in the region, calling upon Israel to resume negotiations on the Syrian and Lebanese tracks, as well as respect all commitments and contracts realized during the last negotiations between the two sides.

The assembly expressed deep worry that Israel has not pulled out of the Syrian Golan yet, noting that this "contradicts the international legitimacy as well as the UN resolutions." Majority of the assembly's members stressed in the decision that building Israeli settlements or other activities on Golan's land are not legitimate.

UN slams Israeli settlements, E. Jerusalem separation fence
AP

UNITED NATIONS - Over U.S. and Israeli objections, the UN General Assembly in an annual ritual approved six resolutions criticizing Israeli policies and calling for stepped-up international effort to revitalize the Middle East peace process.

The 191-member world body ended a three-day Mideast debate Thursday with lopsided votes demanding a speedy resumption of negotiations leading to a final settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, denouncing Israel's "illegal settlement activities" and construction of a wall around East Jerusalem, and demanding Israel's withdrawal from the Golan Heights.

The resolutions are not legally binding - as Security Council resolutions are - but they are a reflection of world opinion. Each resolution received more than 100 "yes" votes from just over 165 nations that voted.

But U.S. Ambassador John Bolton called them "meaningless," "not productive," and "purely symbolic."

"It's one reason why many people say that the UN is not really useful in solving actual problems," he said. "I think a real objective for the General Assembly and all the principal organs of the UN would be only to pass resolutions that have an impact in the real world."

Israel's ambassador to the UN Dan Gillerman said the resolutions were not only "absolutely useless" but "very worrisome" because they signified Palestinian concern only with the past, not with finding constructive ways to improve the lives of both Palestinians and Israelis.

"The positive and very dramatic changes which are actually happening in our region, including the Gaza disengagement, the Rafah crossing agreement, the upcoming harvest of the Palestinians - all these things seem to have absolutely no effect on the ongoing tedious ritual of Palestinian litany," he said.

He accused the Palestinians of hijacking Nov. 29, which is a historic day for Israel when the United Nations decided on the partition of Palestine into an Israeli and Arab state.

Since 1977, the General Assembly has held an annual International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People - a designation that has irked Israel since it was the assembly that voted initially to create the Jewish state on that date.

Palestinian Foreign Minister Nasser Al-Kidwa warned in a speech to the General Assembly on Tuesday that Israel's new settlements, separation barrier and attempts to annex Jerusalem threaten "the window of opportunity" for a Palestinian state. He urged the international community "to prevent this from happening and to safeguard the two-state solution" which envisions Israel living peacefully beside a new state of Palestine.

Al-Kidwa called Israel's disengagement from the Gaza Strip in September "an important development" but said it is critical that this is followed by a return to the so-called road map to Mideast peace, starting with Israel's withdrawal from cities and other areas to pre-September 2000 positions and the release of prisoners and detainees.

The key resolution on the "Peaceful Settlement of the Question of Palestine," which was approved by a vote of 156-6 with 9 abstentions, called on Palestinians and Israelis to implement the road map drafted by the so-called quartet - the United Nations, the United States, the European Union and Russia.

It welcomed the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and parts of the West Bank as a step towards implementing the road map and stressed the need "for the complete cessation of all acts of violence, including military attacks, destruction and acts of terror."