US Vetoes!

On September 30, President George W. Bush of the States signed the State Department Authorization Act (House of Representative 1646) which recognizes Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Even the US President rejects to begin measures moving the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem as State Department’s spokesman, Mr.Boucher, noted, the president slapped every Moslem and Christian worldwide on the face. Jerusalem since time immemorial has been an Arab land with a unique example of religious co-existence among every religion whether it be Judaism, Christianity or Islam. It is not the cancer of the Middle East as the other side claims, but the shrine of God for every believer. Actually President Bush signature came as a surprise taken into consideration the 10’s of UN Resolutions passed regarding Jerusalem as considered ‘ corpus separatus’, a separate body where East Jerusalem, occupied in 1967, is considered occupied territory and West Jerusalem, occupied in 1948, is not recognized under the rule of Israel. Among the said resolutions, UN Security Council’s 252, 267, 271 and 298 stipulating the preserving of the legal and demographic status of Jerusalem and Resolutions 465, 476 and 478. The States recent slap and heavy-stick proved without fail the stark flagrant bias to Israel at the expense and in violation of UN Charter and Resolutions. Actually the signing by President Bush of the said act came in less than two weeks after his address to the UN General Assembly. In this address, president Bush said on Sept. 12, 2002: ‘ We created the United Nations Security Council, so that, unlike the League of Nations, our deliberations would be more than talk, our resolutions would be more than wishes,’’ " Are Security Council resolutions to be honored and enforced, or cast aside without consequences? ""We want the resolutions of the world’s most important multilateral body to be enforced’’ If so your Excellency, with all respect to you, we beg to differ. The signing of the said Act contradicts every UN related resolution. It is the US veto, threats and blind bias which stimulate the more of hatred, tension and unrest in this very region.

With this in mind, it is of great relevance to mention but some of the US vetoes in support of Israel in the UN Security Council: 1. .... condemned Israel's attack against Southern against southern Lebanon and Syria..." 2. ....affirmed the rights of the Palestinian people to self-determination, statehood and equal protections..." 3. ...condemned Israel's air strikes and attacks in southern Lebanon and its murder of innocent civilians..." 4. ....called for self-determination of Palestinian people..." 5. ....deplored Israel's altering of the status of Jerusalem, which is recognized as an international city by most world nations and the United Nations..." 6. ....affirmed the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people..." 7. ....endorsed self-determination for the Palestinian people..." 8. ....demanded Israel's withdrawal from the Golan Heights..." 9. ....condemned Israel's mistreatment of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip and its refusal to abide by the Geneva convention protocols of civilized nations..." 10. ....condemned an Israeli soldier who shot eleven Moslem worshippers at the Haram al-Sharif in the Old City of Jerusalem..." 11. ....urged sanctions against Israel if it did not withdraw from its invasion of Lebanon..." 12. ....urged sanctions against Israel if it did not withdraw from its invasion of Beirut..." 14. ....urged cutoff of economic aid to Israel if it refused to withdraw from its occupation of Lebanon..." 15. ....condemned continued Israeli settlements in occupied territories in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, denouncing them as an obstacle to peace..." 16. ....deplores Israel's brutal massacre of Arabs in Lebanon and urges its withdrawal..." 17. ....condemned Israeli brutality in southern Lebanon and denounced the Israeli 'Iron Fist' policy of repression...." 18. ....denounced Israel's violation of human rights in the occupied territories..." 19. ....deplored Israel's violence in southern Lebanon..." 20. ....deplored Israel's activities in occupied Arab East Jerusalem that threatened the sanctity of Muslim holy sites..." 21. ....condemned Israel's hijacking of a Libyan passenger airplane..." 22. ....deplored Israel's attacks against Lebanon and its measures and practices against the civilian population of Lebanon..." 23. ....called on Israel to abandon its policies against the Palestinian Intifada that violated the rights of occupied Palestinians, to abide by the Fourth Geneva Conventions, and to formalize a leading role for the United Nations in future peace negotiations..."
24. ....urged Israel to accept back deported Palestinians, condemned Israel's shooting of civilians, called on Israel to uphold the Fourth Geneva Convention, and called for a peace settlement under UN auspices..." 25. ....condemned Israel's... incursion into Lebanon..." 26. ....deplored Israel's... commando raids on Lebanon..." 27. ....deplored Israel's repression of the Palestinian Intifada and called on Israel to respect the human rights of the Palestinians..." 28. ....deplored Israel's violation of the human rights of the Palestinians..." 29. ....demanded that Israel return property confiscated from Palestinians during a tax protest and allow a fact-finding mission to observe Israel's crackdown on the Palestinian Intifada..." 30. ...called for a fact-finding mission on abuses against Palestinians in Israeli-occupied lands..."…

In recent years, the United States has pulled away fro international law by disavowing treaties--particularly in the area of disarmament--and by withdrawing its support from the International Criminal Court. Without U.S. leadership, force rather than law will remain the international norm. Relying on force may be tempting to the most powerful country on the planet--but it portends disaster, not least for the United States itself. David Krieger, president of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation said to this effect. The United Nations is indeed urged, as Minister of Information, Mr. Adnan Omran noted to Reuters on Sept. 23, 2002, to "salvage" its resolutions; "It is extremely urgent and necessary that the Security Council shoulder its responsibility and salvage the dignity of the resolutions it has taken, particularly since we now hear the U.S. administration justifying its decision to attack Iraq by saying it is to force Iraq to respect UN resolutions." "Israel ought to be the priority since it is the one that violates and rejects the implementation of a number of resolutions, and should be held accountable in the Security Council," Minister Omran concluded.

 

BY

Mohammad Abdo Al-Ibrahim

Abdo88@Ureach.com





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