US Jews to fight for fence
Jewish leaders and Israeli government officials initiated a diplomatic and media blitz Friday aimed at defeating a UN vote calling for the destruction of the security fence.
Launched ahead of the International Court of Justice's 14-1 advisory opinion, issued Friday in The Hague, which stated that a major portion of Israel's fence violates international law and should be torn down, the campaign is aimed at stanching support for a General Assembly resolution demanding that Israel adhere to the ICJ's decision and a possible Security Council text calling for sanctions against the Jewish state.
"This is a very dark day for the International Court of Justice and the international legal system," Ambassador to the UN Dan Gillerman told reporters at a press conference at UN headquarters in New York. "This is a tragic case where the victims of terror are being put on the dock rather than the terrorists themselves."
Arab nations plan to call a General Assembly session this week to vote on implementing the court's opinion, the Arab League's representative to the UN Yahya Mahmassani said. "We'll ask what the court had decided – Israel has to destroy this wall," Mahmassani told the Associated Press. "It is illegitimate. It's in violation of international law."
A spokesman for UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said that Annan forwarded the opinion to the General Assembly, which, he said, "will determine how to proceed on this matter."
While Israel's UN mission has long deplored the General Assembly's "automatic, anti-Israel majority," the 191-member assembly voted by a relatively small margin last December to send the issue of the fence to the ICJ.
The vote passed 90 to 4 with 74 abstentions – including the world's major democracies.
In addition, four of the Security
Council's five permanent members – the US, Britain, France, and Russia –
have stated their opposition to the court hearing, sparking hope that any
measure put before the 15-member council will face multiple vetoes.
Preparing for the worst, however, Jewish organizations launched a campaign aimed
at securing support for Israel's position that the fence is a necessary measure
to stop terrorist attacks.
Members of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations were mobilized last week to set up meetings with UN missions in New York in an effort to garner support for Israel, said Presidents Conference executive vice president Malcolm Hoenlein.
At B'nai B'rith, for example, members in Europe, Latin America, Canada, and Australia began lobbying government representatives on the issue, and chapters in US cities where foreign consulates are located began setting up meetings to press Israel's case, using a series of talking points distributed by Israeli embassies and consulates as a guide.
"The world's democracies had urged the court not to take up the case," the Presidents Conference noted in a statement – one of dozens released by Jewish organizations Friday in response to the court opinion. "Their voice is muted by the majority of dictatorships and totalitarian states, whose representatives make up the majority of the court."
At a press conference held across from the UN Friday afternoon, Senators Charles Schumer and Hillary Clinton joined Jewish leaders in condemning the ICJ opinion and urging fellow democracies to respect the Israeli Supreme Court's recent ruling on the fence, which declared it to be a security rather than a political measure. Earlier this year, Schumer and Clinton led a bipartisan effort to gather signatures for a letter to Annan protesting the General Assembly resolution. Seventy-five of the nation's 100 senators signed on to the letter.
"There's only one bit of good news you could say about the International Court of Justice's ruling. It's only advisory and it's not going to make a darn bit of difference," Schumer said. Asked about the fate of the fence, Schumer said, "There is no way the fence is going to come down nor should it. Anyone who cares about saving human life would not let the fence come down."
Calling the ICJ decision "ill-advised," Clinton urged the more than 30 nations who publicly opposed ICJ jurisdiction over the fence to make their voices heard at the UN. "If it does come up for a vote, I hope that the countries which have opposed politicizing the ICJ will stand united, will send a very clear message that a sovereign democracy has the right to protect its citizens," she said.
Whatever the outcome of the General Assembly vote, Jewish leaders and Israeli officials emphasized that the court's decision – and its failure to acknowledge Palestinian terrorism as the reason for the fence's construction – bodes ill for peace in the region.
"We have all learned since 9/11 that none of us are immune, and none of us will be immune from the consequences of this decision if it is allowed to stand," said Hoenlein.
Gillerman noted that while the ICJ referred to humanitarian and human rights law in supporting Palestinian opposition to the fence, it failed to address "the point that the right to life is the highest right."
"The Palestinians who want to stop this fence simply want to kill more Israelis," Gillerman said. "The Israelis who are building this fence simply want to live."