USA/FILE: The UN General Assembly held a special session to approve plans for a registry to record claims of damages caused by Israel's West Bank barrier

Record ID: 560199

  • Title: USA/FILE: The UN General Assembly held a special session to approve plans for a registry to record claims of damages caused by Israel's West Bank barrier
  • Date: 16th December 2006
  • Summary: (BN14) BEILIN, WEST BANK (RECENT) (REUTERS) PERSON WALKING ALONG THE WEST BANK WALL TRACTOR
  • Embargoed: 31st December 2006 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVA5KEEZZJCXYNGDYRAW95M9YW0Q
  • Story Text: The United Nations General Assembly held a special session on Friday (December 15) to approve plans for a registry to record claims of damages caused by Israel's construction of its West Bank barrier.
    Palestinian Ambassador to the United Nations Riyad Mansour criticized the Security Council for not taking action sooner. He said the situation is grave and the suffering of the Palestinian people has only increased due to the wall.
    "The Council must take action to bring to an end to this crime that is being committed against the Palestinian people," said Mansour.
    He pressed for the dismantling of the wall by saying, "Indeed as long as the wall exists it is unquestionable that the Palestinian people will continue to suffer from the damages and losses it is inflicting upon them."
    The emergency session was set to take place ten days ago, but was delayed to enable the General Assembly president to complete a trip to the Middle East.
    The request for the Dec. 5 special session came from Arab states after U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan reported he was ready to set up the registry and invited the 192-nation assembly to approve his proposals.
    Mansour stressed that Israel must be held accountable to pay those whose land it has seized in building the wall.
    A mix of electronic fences and walls, the barrier has been under construction since 2002 and eventually will stretch 400 miles (670 km). Israel says it is building the barrier to keep out suicide bombers but Palestinians see the action as a land grab aimed at dashing their hopes for eventual statehood.
    Israeli Ambassador Dan Gillerman told member of the General Assembly that "the root of the barrier is always intended, will be decided according to security considerations, specifically to the manner that best protects Israeli from Palestinian terror."
    Gillerman stated that he did not think there was a need for this emergency session -- and pointed at recent discord and violence within the Palestinian Authority as a more important issue that needs to be addressed.
    The assembly first called for the registry in an August 2004 resolution asking Israel to heed a World Court ruling and tear down the barrier.
    The court said in a July 9, 2004, advisory opinion that the barrier was illegal because it cut into West Bank land to shield Israeli settlements built on territory seized by the Jewish state in the 1967 Middle East War.
    It said Israel was obliged to return to their rightful owners any land, orchards, olive groves or other immovable property seized as part of the barrier's construction.
    Should restitution prove impossible, the Jewish state should compensate those suffering losses or material damage due to its placement or construction, the court said.
    A draft resolution to be put to a vote at next Tuesday's assembly session calls for the establishment within six months of a three-member board and a secretariat to record and process damage claims, as Annan recommended.
    The draft was put forward by a group of mostly Arab states that also includes some Muslim nations and Zimbabwe.
    Payment of the claims would be up to Israel, which initially vowed to ignore the World Court ruling but later changed the barrier's route so that it cut less deeply into the West Bank.
    The registry would remain open sas long as the barrier exists, according to the draft.
    The United Nations initially said it would set up the registry in the West Bank so its offices would be close to those filing damage claims. But in an Oct. 17 report to the assembly, Annan said he would put the offices in Vienna.
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