Israel Withdraws Draft On Rights Of Israeli Children
By Jim Wurst
U.N. Wire Monday, December 1, 2003
www.unwire.org/UNWire/20031201/449_10846.asp

[IMRA: The Office of the Spokesman for the Secretary-General told IMRA that
they are not aware of any comment by Secretary General Annan regarding the
changes that were made in the draft resolution .]

UNITED NATIONS - Israel withdrew a draft resolution on the rights of the
Israeli child from consideration by the General Assembly's Social,
Humanitarian and Cultural Committee Wednesday to avoid having it amended to
refer to the welfare of all children in the Middle East, not only Israelis.

Israeli Ambassador Dan Gillerman said he withdrew the resolution because
some countries, led by Egypt, had proposed "hostile amendments to this
resolution and have worked to ensure that its focus and intent has been
perverted."

The committee debates resolutions on human and social rights, including
rights of children as codified by the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The Israeli draft, which Gillerman described as a "mirror" of a resolution
on the Palestinian child the committee adopted earlier this month, expressed
concern "that Israeli children suffering from the effects of terrorism are
deprived of many basic rights on the Convention [on the Rights of the
Child]" and would have had the committee stress "the urgent need for Israeli
children to live a normal life free from terrorism, destruction and fear."

"We would have preferred that no group of children be singled out, but once
the plight of Palestinian children has been reserved for special attention,"
Gillerman told the committee, "Israeli children certainly deserve no less."
He said the amendments were "grossly unfair and deeply mean-spirited."

Nine states, led by Egypt, had proposed amendments that would have changed
the focus from Israeli children to all children in the Middle East. The
amendments would have replaced the word "Israeli" with the phrase "in the
Middle East region," thus making it about all children in the region. And
where the Israeli text referred primarily to terrorism as a source of
violence, the amendments added "foreign occupation" and "military assaults."
The Arab amendments also deleted a reference to the responsibilities of the
Palestinian Authority in combating terrorism.

Rather than face a vote that would have so altered the original draft,
Gillerman withdrew the text. He thanked opponents of the draft, saying they
"demonstrated eloquently . the shameless double standards that animates
their conduct at the U.N." At a news conference after the meeting,
Gillerman said the committee's actions have "told Palestinian terrorists
[to] continue butchering Israeli children."

Amr Roshdy, first secretary of Egypt's mission to the United Nations,
defended the amendments, saying, "What's hostile about calling for peace for
all children in the Middle East?" He added, "The U.N. does not have double
standards. Simply, the Israel children have their government to protect
them. . What do the Palestinian children have?"

U.S. representative Walid Maalouf told the committee, "This episode will
only bolster the belief that the United Nations continues to be biased and
imbalanced" concerning the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Adopting the
Israeli resolution would have "redressed the imbalance" caused by
Palestinian resolution. The United States opposed that draft because, he
said, "We did not want to see the issue of children politicized," which this
text did because it "singled out one group of children."

The resolution on the Palestinian children was adopted by the committee Nov.
6 by a vote of 86-4, with 58 abstentions. Israel, the United States,
Marshall Islands and Micronesia voted against the draft. The text stressed
"the urgent need for Palestinian children to live a normal life free from
foreign occupation, destruction and fear in their own state" and demanded
that Israel respect international conventions "to ensure the well-being and
protection of Palestinian children."

At a news conference following Gillerman's, Palestinian representative
Nasser al-Kidwa said the Israeli draft "was an attempt to abuse the title
'children' to achieve political goals." He added, "We believe the situation
of the Palestinian children is a unique one [because they] collectively are
deprived of every single right of the child mentioned in the Convention" on
the Rights of the Child.