UN calls for Israel to pull out from West Bank, Golan

NEW YORK - The United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution Friday calling for the withdrawal of Israel from the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights. As expected, the resolution passed by a large majority of 157. Seven countries voted against: Israel, the U.S., Australia, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru and Palau. Ten members abstained.

The resolution is one of a series passed Friday in an annual debate that has been held for many years in the General Assembly. The debate, consisting of three days of meetings, began on November 29, the date in 1947 on which the U.N. approved the Partition Plan.

The Palestinian U.N. observer, Riyad Mansour, praised the resolution and said the large majority was an expression of the support of the international community to advance the peace process.

Israel did not take part in the debate Friday, and as its custom in previous years, ignored the outcome of the vote. The deputy head of the Israeli delegation to the U.N., Daniel Carmon, told Haaretz yesterday, “Palestine Day at the U.N. has crystalized as a process that has repeated itself for dozens of years in which the Arab and Muslim bloc raises anew unilateral anti-Israeli resolutions, leaning on an assured automatic majority.”

“The Arabs feel this yearly debate is their finest hour,” he added.

A related resolution calling for Israel to withdraw from the Golan Heights passed by a majority of 107, with 60 abstentions.

A majority of 157, with 10 abstentions, also voted to call any attempt by Israel to extend Israeli jurisdiction and law on Jerusalem illegal.

New this year was the resolution welcoming the cease-fire in the Gaza Strip and urging both sides to maintain the truce.

The General Assembly has no enforcement powers, and its resolutions have declarative significance only.

Until the General Assembly ends its session at the end of December, which is known in the U.N. as “Israeli month,” another 14 anti-Israel resolutions are expected to pass, traditionally ensured a majority of the support of the world body’s 192 members.

However three new resolutions will be added to the series this year regarding the outcome of the war in Lebanon. One slams Israel for the impact of the war on human rights.

U.N. Secretary General Kofi Anan, who is concluding his term of office at the end of the month, took advantage of the Palestine Day debate to urge the member states to resuscitate the peace process, noting that negotiations were the only way out of the conflict.

Meanwhile, Haaretz has learned that in a meeting Friday in New York between the incoming Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and deputy premier Shimon Peres, Ban told Peres he planned to visit the region and added that the Middle East would be a high priority for him.

He also pledged to work to free Israel’s kidnapped soldiers.