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Israel withdraws first UN resolution in 25 years
Jordan Times, Friday, November 28, 2003
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) — After an uphill struggle, Israel withdrew a resolution on protecting Israeli children from terrorism, with its ambassador accusing the United Nations of hypocrisy, duplicity and double standards. Ambassador Dan Gillerman said on Wednesday amendments from Egypt and others in a General Assembly committee amounted to a "hostile takeover" of his draft resolution, subverting its purpose, shifting its focus and erasing every reference to Israeli children.
"Today we put the United Nations to the ultimate moral test," Gillerman told a news conference. "It failed this litmus test miserably. This demonstrated just how far the hypocrisy, duplicity and double standard policy of the General Assembly and its committees go."
At issue was Israel's first introduction of a resolution since 1976, a draft condemning Palestinian suicide bombings against Israelis. It was meant to mirror a resolution adopted last week by the panel 88-4 with 58 abstentions demanding protection for Palestinian children.
Amendments proposed collectively by Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Senegal, South Africa, Sudan and others would have substituted "Middle East" for "Israeli" children and inserted language condemning "foreign occupation" and "violation of international law."
Nasser Al Kidwa, the Palestinian UN observer, in a separate news conference, called the Israeli draft an attempt to divert from the unique situation of Palestinian children.
He said Palestinian children were deprived of every right included in a 1990 UN treaty on the rights of the child beginning with the right of statehood up to the right of physical protection.
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| Earth, a planet hungry for peace |
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| The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03). |
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| The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers in the West Bank, like a Python (Alquds, 1/25/03. |
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