Kristen Ess: Un Resolution 1515 To Back Roadmap

"More resolutions is not the solution," said Israel's deputy UN ambassador Aryeh Mekel. They must not be for Israel, considering its history of not honoring them. Since 1967 and the passing of Resolution 242, the UN has passed 130 resolutions against Israel, none of which have been honored.

The 15-member United Nations Security Council voted unanimously yesterday to support Resolution 1515, calling for the implementation of the Road Map. Israel has long spoken against UN intervention. Palestinians have been asking for it for years.

Bearing in mind Israel's general non-compliance, the Resolution includes, all its previous relevant resolutions, and highlights three resolutions: 242 from 1967, 338 from 1973, 1397 from 2002, and includes the Madrid principles.

Deputy Russian Foreign Minister Yuri Fedotov said that Russia officially submitted the draft to the UN on Wednesday and Russia's envoy to the UN, Sergei Lavrov, presented the draft to the Security Council. On a recent visit to Russia, Israeli Prime Minister Sharon told Russian President Vladimir Putin that he is against the Road Map.

The Americans told the Israelis in advance that the U.S. would vote with the Road Map resolution, but also said they would attempt to alter the proposal. This is a large reason why Palestinian people have little faith in international agreements. An already flawed document is diminished even further.

The Israelis listed 150 changes to the existing Road Map this year in order to adopt it, 14 of which are major. Take for example settlement construction. Already illegal under international law, under the Road Map settlements built after March 2001 were to be dismantled, and all settlement construction was to stop including what is referred to as "natural growth." Sharon bastardized the language, instead saying, "unauthorized outposts," which simply means settlements the Israeli government did not give the okay to.

Bush used the same language in his speech in Britain last night. He said Israel must, "dismantle unauthorized outposts." Not only are Bush and Sharon conspiring to rewrite the document, they are wiping out its reality with a switch of the tongue.

Besides indirectly calling on Europe to stop speaking to Arafat and denouncing what he referred to as "terror incitement" in the Arab media, Bush dissembled with sympathetic language. "Israel should freeze settlement construction, dismantle unauthorized outposts, end the daily humiliation of the Palestinian people and not prejudice final negotiations with the placements of walls and fences," fumbling over the word "humiliation."

Sharon assured the media that there are no problems with his closest ally and insists that any monitoring of Road Map implementation be under U.S. control.


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Kristen Ess, an independent journalist and activist from New York City, has lived with Palestinian families under seige in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. She reports for Free Speech Radio News, the Pacifica network, and produces a weekly show for CKUT in Montreal. She writes for Left Turn magazine, The Electronic Intifada, and The Palestine Chronicle. Her writing is translated into French, Italian, German and Arabic. She is working on a book about life under occupation in the Gaza Strip.