Israeli envoy says world court's opinion on barrier "counterproductive"

Israeli UN Ambassador Dan Gillerman said here Friday that his government could not accept an advisory opinion on the west bank barriers by the world court in the Hague which is "counterproductive and harmful."

"The General Assembly had acted wrongly, politicizing the courtand turning a judicial organ into an actor on the political stage," Gillerman told the 191-member assembly when it convened Friday for a special session.

He said the persistent campaign carried out by Palestine to manufacture an alternate world had contributed little to UN credibility and nothing to the cause of peace.

The Palestinians are seeking a world in which "there was but one victim and one villain, one in which there were Palestinian rights but not responsibilities and Israel responsibilities but not rights," said the Israeli ambassador.

He said that his country had been dismayed to see that the 60-plus-page opinion had addressed neither the brutal terrorism faced by innocent Israelis, nor the ongoing refusal of the Palestinian leadership to bring that terrorism to an end.

"That terrorism was the very motivation for construction of thesecurity fence," he noted. "The court's omission was legally inexplicable and morally inexcusable, yet Israel had been urged toput more faith in international institutions and actors, to trust their objectivity and fairness."

Jordan, on behalf of the Arab States, tabled a draft resolution demanding Israel comply with the advisory opinion. It demanded that Israel stop construction, dismantle the barrier, and provide reparations to Palestinians whose lives have been harmed by the wall.

The draft also demanded the General Assembly reconvene to consider further actions in the case of Israeli "noncompliance" to the legal opinion from the Hague.

It is not uneasy for the Palestinians to collect a mass vote for the draft at the assembly, but a GA resolution, like the advisory opinion by the international court, is legally nonbinding.

Demanded by Arab nations, the assembly asked the world court inlast December for an opinion on the legality of the barrier. As the top UN legal body, the court, formally known as the International Court of Justice, ruled last week that the construction of the security wall "are contrary to international law."

Source: Xinhua