Israel has vowed to press on with construction of a barrier it is building in the West Bank despite a UN General Assembly resolution demanding that it be torn down.
"The building of the fence will go on," said Mr Raanan Gissin, a senior adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. "Israel will not stop building it or abdicate its inalienable right to self-defence."
Israel calls the project a bulwark against Palestinian suicide bombers. Palestinians condemn it as a land grab.
Mr Raanan Gissin, adviser to the Israeli prime minister
The United Nations General Assembly demanded that Israel obeys a World Court ruling and tears down the controversial barrier. A resolution aimed at dismantling the 370-mile (600-km) barrier was passed in a 150 to 6 majority in favour with 10 abstentions.
All 25 European Union member countries voted in support of the Palestinian-drafted measure after its Arab sponsors accepted a series of EU modifications over days of intense negotiations.
The United States, Israel and Australia and the Pacific island states of Marshall Islands, Micronesia and Palau voted against. Abstaining were Canada, Cameroon, El Salvador, Nauru, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tonga, Uganda, Uruguay and Vanuatu.
The assembly resolution, like the court ruling, is not legally binding but carries symbolic weight and could lead to future measures.
Palestinian UN observer Mr Nasser al-Kidwa praised the vote as "a historic development," adding "It is time now, we believe for implementation, for compliance, and at a later stage, for additional measures."
Mr Kidwa said member states should consider taking further measures against the Israelis, such as making Jewish settlers in the West Bank and Gaza ineligible for visas abroad and placing companies involved in building the wall under sanctions.
Mr James Cunningham, the US deputy ambassador, said the resolution was unbalanced and could undermine the goal of a Middle East in which Israeli and Palestinian states lived side by side in peace.
"Thank God that the fate of Israel and of the Jewish people is not decided in this hall," Israeli Ambassador Dan Gillerman said after the vote. "When all is said and done, it is simply outrageous to respond with such vigour to a measure that saves lives and respond with such casual indifference and apathy to a Palestinian campaign that takes lives."
The General Assembly acted after the World Court ruled in a July 9th "advisory opinion" that the barrier, which is still under construction, was illegal because it cut deep into West Bank land to shield settlements built by Israel on territory it seized in the 1967 Middle East War.