UN creation of register for fence claims raises ire Tovah Lazaroff and Uriel Heilman January 13, 2005 The Jerusalem Post – HYPERLINK http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1105504413122&p=1008596975996 http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1105504413122&p=1008596975996 American Jewish groups and terror victims lashed out Wednesday at the United Nations General Assembly for moving ahead with the creation of a register to assess damage claims stemming from the construction of the security fence in the territories. It is wrong and outrageous for the General Assembly to act on this issue, said Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League. A UN General Assembly anti-Israel resolution passed in July asked UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to establish a register of damage caused by the fence's construction for possible future claims and legal action. The resolution was based on the advisory opinion issued last summer by the International Court of Justice at The Hague demanding the demolition of the barrier in areas beyond the pre-1967 borders. Foxman said the registry marks the first time that the General Assembly is acting as an implementing agency. Typically, anti-Israel resolutions passed by the General Assembly have no enforcement power unless they are dealt with in the security council, Foxman said. We should not be surprised. Israel always breaks new ground in the United Nations when it comes to bigotry and prejudice, Foxman said. Annan took the first step Tuesday to create a claims register by sending a letter to the General Assembly president setting out a framework for the register and the next steps in its creation. UN associate spokesman Stephane Dujarric, who announced that the letter had been sent, did not disclose its contents. But the UN, in a background note, said the registry's establishment and operation would require Israeli cooperation, which we look forward to. Anat Friedman, a spokeswoman for Israel's ambassador the UN Dan Gillerman and the Foreign Ministry, declined to comment, saying Israel needed more time to study the issue. But the establishment of the registry for Palestinian damage claims comes at a time of mostly positive developments for Israel at the world body. Since a nadir last summer when the ICJ issued its non-binding ruling that the fence is illegal, Israel has made some significant gains at the UN. This fall, Israel managed to get a clause condemning suicide bombing in one of the many resolutions at the UN condemning Israel for its action in the Palestinian-populated territories – a move Arab states previously had succeeded in blocking. In late November, the General Assembly for the first time included a reference to anti-Semitism in an annual UN resolution condemning religious intolerance. And on Tuesday, the same day that it announced the creation of the claims registry, the UN also stated that enough members had joined with Israel and other sponsoring countries to hold a special session of the General Assembly on January 24 to mark the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi death camps. In an interview several weeks ago with `The Jerusalem Post in New York, Gillerman said that given the abysmal history of UN treatment of Israel in recent decades, in this environment, even small changes mean something. Foxman was less impressed with the UN. The juxtaposition of the two announcements on Tuesday, the claims registry and the anti-Semitism session in the General Assembly shows that the world is willing to talk about Jews in trouble and in pain, but it is not willing to tolerate Jews who are alive and who stand up for their principles, said Foxman. Arnold Roth, whose daughter Malka, 15, was killed in a suicide bombing in the Sbarro restaurant in Jerusalem in 2001, said he was troubled by the lack of context in the General Assembly's move. Anyone who pays attention to Israel's position on the security fence knows that the price paid by the Palestinian Arabs is well understood. You can't ignore that land has been taken from farmers. Access roads have been blocked. Travel times have gotten longer, said Roth. For Israelis, like my family, who have personally experienced terrorism in the hardest possible way, we know this story has a context. Israelis – particularly Israeli children – are being murdered. The numbers of damaged families would have been far greater if Israel had not taken defensive measures. I don't know of any theory of democracy that views things differently, said Roth. The leaders of the UN prefer not to turn their minds to what would happen without an Israeli security fence. That's their privilege. But our concern for the lives of our children forces Israeli society to take a much more balanced – I would say a more honest and mature – approach. This is not the UN's finest hour, he said. The absence of a similar examination of the cost of terror renders the whole debate useless, said Roth. The registry office, as envisioned by Annan, would be based in Palestinian territory so that it will be close to the people who will be submitting their damage claims for inclusion in the register, the note said. Details on staffing, size and cost remain to be worked out, but Annan proposed that the registry office be financed from contributions by all 191 UN member states. The board that will oversee the register will determine how damage claims should be submitted, and all information will be made public, the UN note said. The purpose of the register is not to adjudicate claims of damage but to collect them for possible future adjudication and compensation, it said, adding that a future compensation mechanism would be responsible for deciding on the legitimacy of claims and putting a value on them. The UN said the delay in announcing the framework for the register was due to time consuming consultation and review by the UN legal and political departments. The Associated Press contributed to this report.