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10 Cheshvan 5764 - November 5, 2003 | Mordecai Plaut, director Published Weekly
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NEWS
Israel Submits a UN Resolution
by Yated Ne'eman Staff

Even though it is the most popular subject of resolutions in the United Nations General Assembly, Israel has never tried submitting a resolution of its own. Now it has.

According to the Associated Press, the Israeli resolution calls for the protection of Israeli children victimized by Palestinian terrorism. A similar draft resolution was submitted by Egypt last week highlighting the plight of Palestinian children affected by more than three years of bloody conflict in the region.

In submitting its resolution, Israel has adopted a change in strategy.

The UN General Assembly, where each country in the world has one vote, has been unremittingly hostile to Israel. The Arab states form a large bloc of votes, and most other countries either vote with them or abstain on votes. African and Asian countries usually vote the Arab position without question. Only the United States and some very small countries (Micronesia) have consistently voted to protect Israel's interests. For European states, either vote for the Arab resolutions of abstain. Thus, anti-Israel resolutions sail through the General Assembly with lopsided votes. The only consolation has been the General Assembly resolutions are not binding.

Only Security Council resolutions are binding, and there the United States has used its veto -- or the threat of its veto -- to block resolutions it considers unbalanced.

Israel has thus generally ignored General Assembly resolutions. Israel's relationship with the General Assembly reached a low in 1975, when the General Assembly voted absurdly to equate Zionism with racism. Even though this was repealed in the 1990s, the scars remain.

Twenty anti-Israel resolutions passed in the General Assembly in 2002. When some of these were brought to the Security Council, the United States vetoed them arguing that they made no reference to the Palestinian terror that elicited Israel's actions and were unbalanced.

Now Israeli diplomats have decided to try a more active approach. By introducing a separate but parallel resolution to the Egyptian draft, they hope to win more support for balance. Seeing the two resolutions as a diplomatic unit, Israeli diplomats said they would be happy if the General Assembly decided to drop the two drafts or to adopt them both. It will certainly make the situation much more complicated for many countries.

Israel called its proposal a test as to whether the organization is capable of taking a balanced approach to the Mideast.

"The test will be if they pass the Palestinian one but not ours," said deputy Israeli Ambassador Arye Meckel in an interview with The Associated Press. Meckel will send a letter to ambassadors at the United Nations asking for their support for Israel's first resolution.

Both the Israeli and the Egyptian resolutions are expected to come up for a vote in the UN's human rights committee within the next two weeks. If either one passes, it will go to the full General Assembly for a final vote in December.

 

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