The UN General Assembly voted today for a Palestinian-initiated resolution asking the International Court of Justice whether Israel was legally obligated to tear down its barrier in the West Bank. The vote was 90 to 8 with 74 abstentions, an unusually high number reflecting doubts about seeking an advisory opinion from the UN court, based in The Hague, Netherlands.
Opposing the resolution were the United States, Israel, Australia, Ethiopia and the Pacific islands of Nauri, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, and Palau.
Israel says the 90-mile (150-km) barrier of fences, razor wire, concrete walls and trenches, is needed to keep out suicide bombers, who have killed more than 400 Israelis over the past three years. Palestinians say the structure, which juts deep into the West Bank, is a land grab by Israel and prejudges border of a future state.
In Jerusalem, an adviser to Prime Minister Mr Ariel Sharon, Mr Raanan Gissin, said Israel would go before the court to "show we have the full right to exercise our right to self-defense."
But Israeli Justice Minister Mr Yosef Lapid, leader of the centrist Shinui Party, asked the Cabinet to reopen debate on whether the barrier's planned route cuts too deeply into Palestinian areas.
All nations, including the United States, spoke against the barrier. Europeans were among the abstentions, arguing that negotiations and not a tribunal had to settle issues.