Al Qedwa Disappointed of US Veto On Apartheid Wall

Al Qedwa Disappointed of US Veto Thwarting UN Resolution Condemning "Apartheid Wall"

NEW YORK - The Palestinian U.N. permanent observer, Nasser Al-Qedwa, grieved over the American decision and said there can be no peace process so long as Israel is building the barrier.

"You cannot have this construction of the expansionist wall and simply pretend that the Road Map exists," Al-Qedwa said. "It's either or.”

Al-Qedwa said some ideas "were non-starters for us," citing attempts "to add elements in grossly imbalanced way — specifically if somebody wants to condemn Haifa (explosion attack), without condemning the invasion of Rafah, or condemning suicide bombings without condemning war crimes. This is nonsense."

The United States on Tuesday vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution that condemned Israel for building the Apartheid wall around the West Bank.

The United States was the only country to vote against, using its veto as one of the five permanent members of the council. Four of the 15 members of the Security Council abstained: Bulgaria, Cameroon, Germany and Britain.

Up to 78 times the United States had vetoed resolutions that condemn Israel.

The draft resolution that was outlined by the Palestinians and forwarded by Syria to condemn the Apartheid wall built by Israel as illegal in compliance with the international law provisions and demanded to halt its construction.

The draft resolution urges the UN Security Council to decide "that the construction by Israel, the occupying power, of a wall in the occupied

territories away from the armistice line of 1949 is illegal under relevant provisions of international law and must be ceased and reversed."

The draft resolution reiterated the UN Security Council's opposition to all Jewish settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territories and all the activities of land expropriation.

The United State vetoed on September 16, a resolution compelling Israel to go back on its decision to remove President Yasser Arafat, as well as it used the veto on September 20, against a draft resolution condemning the killing a handful of UN employees by the Israeli forces in the Palestinian territories.

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