Palestinians Press Israel To Heed Court Ruling On West Bank Barrier

UNITED NATIONS, July 16 (AFP) - The Palestinians on Friday called on Israel to heed a world court ruling and tear down part of its West Bank security wall or prepare for a fight all the way to the UN Security Council.
In a General Assembly debate on a draft resolution demanding that Israel comply with last week's court decision, Palestinian UN representative Nasser al-Kidwa said Israel should also face the threat of sanctions.
"Israel will have to choose whether to declare itself -- officially, morally and legally -- an outlaw state, or to reconcile itself with a new reality," Kidwa told the assembly.
But Israeli ambassador Dan Gillerman fired back that other nations in the Middle East did not offer citizens the rights and legal protections of the Israeli courts, which ordered part of the wall to be re-routed.
"These regimes have the gall to speak of sanctions for a measure that saved lives," he said, referring to the controversial barrier that Israel says has cut back on Palestinian terror attacks by 90 percent.
For them to "lecture anyone about the rule of law or accuse others of being outlaws, we have indeed reached a point where the inmates are running the asylum," Gillerman said.
The International Court of Justice in The Hague, the UN's highest tribunal, ruled last Friday that the barrier was illegal and that parts built on Palestinian territory must be dismantled.
It also said Israel should pay damages to the Palestinians. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has already said that construction would continue and that Israel would ignore the court ruling.
The UN General Assembly, which groups all 191 UN member states, is expected to pass the resolution, but Arab nations have been lobbying for days to get the European Union to add its support to the measure.
There will be no vote Friday and a revised version of the resolution would be circulated later in the day, diplomats and a UN spokeswoman said. The assembly will likely vote on Monday.
General Assembly resolutions are not legally binding and Kidwa vowed to push for a binding resolution at the UN Security Council, even though such a move would all but certainly draw a veto from the United States.
"The threat of veto will not thwart us, and all others who respect and uphold international law," Kidwa said. "Vetoes have contributed absolutely nothing to the search for peace."
The United States has regularly used its veto power on the council to block measures criticising Israel.
Kidwa again denied that the Palestinians would wait to make a move to the Security Council until after the US presidential election in November, in hopes that a more Palestinian-friendly administration would be elected.
He said that the Palestinians instead wanted to give Israel a chance to implement the court ruling first.
"We shall not exempt the Security Council of its responsibilities, irrespective of the threat of the use of veto," he said.