In UN Vote, U.S. Snubbed for Defending Israeli Aggression

Tweet This must be why Kofi Annan is going around saying the UN needs to get off the subject of Israel/Palestine. His masters lost a vote there. --linda

UNITED NATIONS, Nov 17 (IPS) - The UN General Assembly adopted a resolution on Friday deploring Israeli military aggression against Palestinian civilians in the occupied territories.

Fully endorsed by the 118-member Non-Aligned Movement, the 57-member Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC), the European Union and many African and Latin American nations, the resolution calls for an immediate halt to Israel's ongoing military campaign in the occupied territories, including East Jerusalem.

It also demands that UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan set up a fact-finding mission to investigate the Nov. 8 Israeli shelling of Beit Hanoun that killed as many as 19 people, including five women and seven children.

The resolution, adopted by 156 votes in favour, seven against and six abstentions, comes a week after the United States vetoed a Security Council draft resolution that would have strongly condemned Israel for the Nov. 8 military action in Beit Hanoun, a town in Gaza.

Israel said the incident was unintentional and that it was a mistake, a clarification that many refused to accept, including a number of international aid organisations that operate in the Middle East region.

Before and after the vote, speaker after speaker denounced the U.S. decision last week to veto the draft resolution as "biased" and "unjustified", while describing Israeli military incursions into Palestinian towns and cities as "state-terrorism" and "blatant disregard for innocent human lives" that they said was "unacceptable," "immoral," and "unlawful."