U.S. vetoes censure of Israeli settlements

Press, 4 August 1983, Page 11

U.S. vetoes censure of Israeli settlements

NZPA-Reuter New York The United States yesterday vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution which said that Israeli settlements in occupied territories, “have no legal validity” and calling for them to be dismantled. The vote on the draft was 13 in favour and one against, Zaire casting the only abstention. Voting for the resolution were: Britain, China, France, Guyana, Jordan, Malta, the Netherlands, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Poland, the Soviet Union, Togo, and Zimbabwe. The resolution, sponsored by 20 Arab countries, would also have condemned “the

recent attacks perpetrated against the Arab civilian population” in the occupied territories.

The debate came after the killing by masked gunmen last week of three Palestinian students and the wounding of some 30 others in the West Bank town of Hebron.

The United States representative, Charles Lichenstein, told the Council that the draft did not adequately address the “recent series of criminal attacks in the West Bank,” where a Jewish settler was also killed last month in Hebron.

He emphasised that the United States did not vote against the resolution be-

A?ause it approved of Israel’s settlement policies. Mr Lichenstein quoted a statement in September by

President Ronald Reagan saying that a settlement freeze, more than any other single action, would help foster the atmosphere for negotiations. The most obvious flaw in the draft was its implication that Israel had conducted forcible transfers of Arab people from the occupied territories, he said. It was also not practical nor appropriate to call for the dismantling of existing settlements. Their future

was one of the key issues for negotiation, he said. A debate over whether

the settlements were “legal” or “illegal” had failed to address the real problem and encouraged rhetorical and legalistic arguments that polarised differences.

The Palestine Liberation Organisation’s observer, Zehdi Terzi, said that he was not surprised that one delegation had voted like the “Lone Ranger,” but its statement justifying that course was confusing. Mr Clovis Maksoud, of the Arab League, said that he did not want the United States veto to be a “rupture in Arab-American communication.” In some ways it might stimulate a dialogue, he said.