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U.N.
General Assembly Demands Annan Report on Jenin
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Palestinian
children play in the rubble of the Jenin refugee camp.
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UNITED
NATIONS, May 8 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - An Arab-drafted
resolution condemning Israel's refusal to cooperate with a U.N.
fact-finding mission to the Jenin refugee camp was adopted by the
General Assembly’s tenth emergency special session on the situation
in the occupied Palestinian territories, which resumed late Tuesday,
May 7, with a far smaller majority than expected.
Several
Western diplomats abstained, saying they were revolted by the bomb
blast that killed at least 15 Israelis near Tel Aviv just before the
vote was taken.
The
resolution was adopted by 74 votes in favor, four against and 51
abstentions. But, at the suggestion of Russia, a separate vote was
also taken on each of the resolution's 24 paragraphs, and much larger
majorities were obtained on two of those.
One
requested U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan to prepare a report on
last month's events in the Palestinian refugee camp in Jenin. It was
adopted by 120 votes to four with six abstentions.
Annan
set up a fact-finding team April 22, but disbanded it 12 days later
after repeated challenges by Israel to its composition and terms of
reference.
The
other paragraph, adopted by 123 votes to one with six abstentions,
demanded the immediate and full implementation of Security Council
Resolution 1402, which called on Israelis and Palestinians to cease
fire.
The
tenth emergency session was originally convened in 1997 after the
Security Council failed -- in two separate meetings -- to adopt a
draft resolution on a new Israeli settlement south of East Jerusalem.
Using
the "Uniting for Peace" formula, a special emergency session
of the General Assembly was convened in April and again in July and
November of 1997. It also resumed in 1998, 1999, 2000 and 2001.
Nasser
Al-Kidwa, the Palestinian observer to the United Nations, noted that
both Israel and the Security Council had initially welcomed the Jenin
fact-finding mission, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).
But,
he told the Assembly, the council "stood by as a spectator"
while Israel "resorted to blackmail" to get Annan to change
the members of his team and its methods of work.
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