Salah Awad, Asharq Al-Awsat

UNITED NATIONS, 20 September 2003 — The UN General Assembly yesterday overwhelmingly passed a resolution warning Israel not to go ahead with its threat to “remove” Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat from the West Bank.

The resolution was presented to the assembly after the United States vetoed a similar measure this week at the UN Security Council, saying it did not take into account Palestinian militant groups that have attacked Israel.

Unlike Security Council resolutions, those passed by the assembly cannot be vetoed but are not legally binding.

Yesterday’s measure passed 133-4 with 15 abstentions. The United States again voted against, with US Ambassador John Negroponte saying the world body should be focused on the internationally backed road map for peace.

In addition to the United States, the three other nations that voted against were Israel, the Marshall Islands and Micronesia.

As they did ahead of the council vote on Tuesday, the Palestinian and Israeli envoys traded barbs in the hours-long open debate on the resolution, which was sponsored by the UN’s bloc of Arab nations. Palestinian representative Nasser Al-Kidwa rejected Israel’s description of Arafat as a “terrorist,” saying: “The Israelis were the first to introduce terrorism to our region.”

Israel came in for heavy criticism after announcing its plan to remove the veteran Palestinian leader.

But US President George W. Bush on Thursday added his voice to the mounting Israeli attack on Arafat, saying he had “failed as a leader” and should be replaced.

Meanwhile in Vienna, the Arab League withdrew a draft resolution yesterday that called on Israel to sign the Non-Proliferation Treaty and allow the UN to inspect its nuclear program, but vowed to try again next year.

Israel has not signed the NPT and has never officially admitted to having nuclear weapons.

However, non-proliferation experts estimate that Israel has from 100 to 200 nuclear bombs.

Although the Arab states failed for the 12th year in a row to gather enough support to pass the resolution, a diplomat said that it would be unfair to call the withdrawal a failure.

In Jenin, four Palestinians and three Israeli soldiers were wounded yesterday during a massive army sweep for militants that entered its consecutive second day, sources on both sides said.

Troops also dynamited the family house of a bomber on the outskirts of the refugee camp. Shadi Tubassi’s two-story house was blown up after its 11 inhabitants were evacuated.

Another militant’s house was destroyed in Rantis, north of Ramallah, the army said. The house had belonged to bomber Ihab Abu Salim from the hard-line Hamas movement.

In another eastern Jenin neighborhood, Har Assarqia, a 23-year-old man was critically injured in the head during clashes between rock-throwing youths and Israeli troops.

An eight-year-old girl was also moderately hurt in the same incident, Palestinian medical sources said.

— With input from agencies