UN demands Israel halt apartheid wall
The U.N. General Assembly has approved a resolution demanding that Israel halt construction of an “apartheid” wall that cuts deep into the West Bank.
The vote, late on Tuesday, was 144 in favor, 4 against, including the United States and Israel, and 12 abstentions.
A compromise text, negotiated during more than six hours of haggling between European Union and Arab governments, demands that Israel “stop and reverse the construction of the wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory” and calls the barrier “in contradiction to relevant provisions of international law.”
An earlier version, drafted by Palestinian U.N. envoy Nasir al-Qudwa and endorsed by Arab governments, would have declared the wall to be a violation of international law that “must be ceased and reversed.”
The new text softened this concept to win over the EU, which sponsored the resolution instead of the Arab group.