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Photo: Reuters
U.N. under fire
Photo: Reuters

Senate presses U.N. on anti-Israel bias

U.S. Senate passes bill that would require world body to stop one-sided resolutions, dismantle "duplicative" pro-Palestinian bodies

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted Thursday to demand a series of reforms from the United Nations, and threatened to pull U.S. funding for the world organization if the General Assembly does not stop passing one-sided anti-Israel resolutions.

 

The Senate resolution condemned repeated General Assembly resolutions condemning Israel for defending citizens against Palestinian terrorism, and said Israel is the only country in affect disqualified from sitting on the Security Council or U.N. human rights bodies because other countries in the region refuse to admit Israel to the regional group.

 

Calls to expand European group

The 70-page United NationsReform Act of 2005. The bill also calls for the president to “direct the United States Permanent Representative to the United Nationsto use the voice, vote, and influence of the United States to expand the Western European and Others Group in the United Nations to include Israel as a permanent member with full rights and privileges.”

 

Once the law is passed, the secretary of state must report to Congress twice yearly to report on progress towards adding Israel to the European group.

 

Eliminating “duplicative” bodies

 

If the bill becomes law, it will tie U.S. funding for the organization to U.N. neutrality between Israel and the Palestinians. It will also require the organization to must do away with “duplicative” pro-Palestinian bodies in the U.N., including The United Nations Division for Palestinian Rights, The Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, The United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process and Personal Representative to the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority, and The NGO Network on the Question of Palestine.

 

The bill proposes the United States withhold its annual contribution to the U.N. until all recommendations have been met, to the satisfaction of both American and Israeli government comptrollers.

 

 


פרסום ראשון: 06.10.05, 13:52
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