RI tells Israel to quit killing Palestinians
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Indonesia demanded on Monday that Israel return to negotiations with Palestinian leaders and quit using violence to settle heated disputes between the two peoples, Antara news agency reported from New York on Tuesday.
"Not with weapons or bullets," Indonesian representative to the United Nations Rezlan Ishar Jenie emphasized while conveying the Indonesian government's stance before an emergency session of the UN Security Council.
The session had been demanded by Arab nations following the assassination of Hamas leader Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi on Saturday.
"It is very important to stop the killing of Palestinians because the action will merely cause revenge attacks," explained Rezlan.
"We convey our condolences to the Palestinian families and people."
The United States and Israel came under fire at the meeting on Monday requested by Arab and Muslim nations furious over Israel's killing of the Hamas chief.
Dozens of countries condemned the assassination of Rantissi on Saturday, which came just three weeks after Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin was killed in a similar Israeli attack in the Gaza Strip.
Meanwhile, the South African government has also joined the international community in expressing its outrage and condemnation of the assassination of Rantissi on Saturday.
"South Africa views the assassination of the Hamas leader as an act of provocation that will only fuel the cycle of violence and counter-violence that is fast destroying any prospects for peace in the region," the South African Embassy in Jakarta said in a press release sent to the The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.
Arab nations presented a strongly worded draft resolution all but certain to draw another veto from the United States, which blocked a similar measure in the council after Yassin was killed.
"I think the draft resolution is quite outspoken," the Security Council president, German ambassador Gunter Pleuger told AFP. He said discussions on the draft would begin on Tuesday.
Frustration with U.S. policy on Israel has intensified since President George W. Bush said last week that Israel should be allowed to keep part of the West Bank in any future peace deal with the Palestinians.
"Israel, the occupying power, continues its reign of terror," Nasser al-Kidwa, the Palestinian representative to the United Nations, told the council during a two-hour public session.
He added that Israel's claim that targeting militant Palestinian leaders for assassination constituted part of the fight against terrorism was inappropriate and inaccurate.
"It's about Israel's refusal to end this occupation, seeking all the while to acquire more land by force and to eliminate more of the indigenous population," Kidwa said.
Israeli UN ambassador Dan Gillerman said the killing of Rantissi was "not merely a defensive act" but "part of the global struggle against terrorism that has been thrust upon all of us." He called Rantissi "a trader in death."