Associated Foreign Press
December 3, 2001

UNITED NATIONS, Dec 3 (AFP) - The UN General Assembly voted overwhelmingly on Monday for six resolutions criticising Israel, one of which called on all states with embassies in Jerusalem to move them out of the city.

The resolutions, none of them binding, were adopted despite a plea by Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, Yehuda Lancry, for the assembly not to "endow Palestinian terrorism with an international legitimacy".

Most of the texts had been adopted by strong majorities every year for more than two decades, but Lancry said the events of the weekend obliged him to break with Israel's traditionally silent response to this "unfailing ritual".

Hours before the vote, Israel launched a massive military assault on Palestinian territories in reprisal for the deaths of two dozen Israelis killed by suicide bombers over the weekend.

"Unless it considers Palestinian terrorism a form of national resistance, and thus ultimately acceptable, the General Assembly must make a moral choice today," Lancry said.

One of the resolutions declared that Israel's Basic Law -- which proclaimed Jerusalem as the eternal and indivisible capital of the Jewish state -- was "illegal and therefore null and void and has no validity whatsoever."

The resolution received 130 votes in favour; Nauru was the only country to join Israel in voting against, while the United States was among 10 which abstained.

Delegates from several countries took the floor to explain that they had not had time to cast their votes before the Assembly president declared the ballot closed. President Han Seung-soo of South Korea ruled that the final tally would be amended in the official record.

The resolution "deplores the transfer of some states of their diplomatic missions to Jerusalem in violation of Security Council Resolution 478 of 1980 and their refusal to comply with the provisions of that resolution."

A resolution "stressing the illegality of Israel's settlement construction and activities on the occupied Syrian Golan since 1967" was adopted by 90 votes to five with 54 abstentions.

Another, stressing the need for "the realisation of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people" to self-determination and an independent state, received 131 votes in support, six against and 20 abstentions.

Three other resolutions, adopted by similar majorities, commended the committee on the exercise of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people and other aspects of the UN system and work.

Urging the Assembly to reject the texts, Lancry said "the importance of this vote lies in the quality of the message transmitted by the General Assembly to the Palestinians."