UN to create registry for Israeli barrier claims
Source: Reuters
By Irwin Arieff UNITED NATIONS, Nov 28 (Reuters) - The U.N. General Assembly will hold a special session next week to approve plans for a registry to record claims of damages caused by Israel's construction of its West Bank barrier, U.N. diplomats said on Tuesday. The request for the Dec. 5 special session came from Arab states after U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan reported he was ready to set up the registry and invited the 192-nation assembly to approve his proposals. The assembly first called for the registry in an August 2004 resolution asking Israel to heed a World Court ruling and tear down the barrier. A mix of electronic fences and walls, the barrier has been under construction since 2002 and eventually will stretch 400 miles (670 km). Israel says it is building the barrier to keep out suicide bombers but Palestinians see the action as a land grab aimed at dashing their hopes for eventual statehood. The court said in a July 9, 2004, advisory opinion that the barrier was illegal because it cut into West Bank land to shield Israeli settlements built on territory seized by the Jewish state in the 1967 Middle East War. It said Israel was obliged to return to their rightful owners any land, orchards, olive groves or other immovable property seized as part of the barrier's construction. Should restitution prove impossible, the Jewish state should compensate those suffering losses or material damage due to its placement or construction, the court said. A draft resolution to be put to a vote at next Tuesday's assembly session calls for the establishment within six months of a three-member board and a secretariat to record and process damage claims, as Annan recommended. The draft was put forward by a group of mostly Arab states that also includes some Muslim nations and Zimbabwe. Payment of the claims would be up to Israel, which initially vowed to ignore the World Court ruling but later changed the barrier's route so that it cut less deeply into the West Bank. The registry would remain open as long as the barrier exists, according to the draft. The United Nations initially said it would set up the registry in the West Bank so its offices would be close to those filing damage claims. But in an Oct. 17 report to the assembly, Annan said he would put the offices in Vienna.
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