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“SENATE RESOLUTION--EXPRESSING THE SENSE OF THE SENATE WITH RESPECT TO UNITED NATIONS GENERAL ASSEMBLY RESOLUTION” mentioning the U.S. Dept of State was published in the Senate section on pages S6948 on June 14, 1999.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
SENATE RESOLUTION--EXPRESSING THE SENSE OF THE SENATE WITH RESPECT TO
UNITED NATIONS GENERAL ASSEMBLY RESOLUTION
Mr. SMITH of Oregon (for himself, Mr. Schumer, and Mr. Brownback) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations:
S. Res. 119
Whereas in an Emergency Special Session, the United Nations General Assembly voted on February 9, 1999, to pass Resolution ES-10/6, ``Illegal Israeli Actions In Occupied East Jerusalem And The Rest Of The Occupied Palestinian Territory,'' to convene for the first time in 50 years the parties of the Fourth Geneva Convention for the Protection of Civilians in Time of War;
Whereas such resolution unfairly places full blame for the deterioration of the Middle East Peace Process on Israel and dangerously politicizes the Geneva Convention, which was established to deal with critical humanitarian crises; and
Whereas such vote is intended to prejudge direct negotiations, put additional and undue pressure on Israel to influence the results of those negotiations, and single out Israel for unprecedented enforcement proceedings which have never been invoked against governments with records of massive violations of the Geneva Convention; Now therefore be it
Resolved by the Senate, that the Senate--
(1) commends the Department of State for the vote of the United States against United Nations General Assembly Resolution ES-10/6 affirming that the text of such resolution politicizes the Fourth Geneva Convention which was primarily humanitarian in nature;
(2) urges the Department of State to continue its efforts against convening the conference; and
(3) urges the Swiss government, as the depositary of the Geneva Convention, not to convene a meeting of the Fourth Geneva Convention.
Mr. SMITH of Oregon. Mr. President, I rise today to submit a resolution regarding a deplorable vote by the General Assembly of the United Nations in February 1999. At that time a resolution was passed recommending a convening of the Fourth Geneva Convention. This Convention protects civilians living in territory occupied by a hostile force.
In February, the Palestine Liberation Organization supported by the Arab Group and the nonaligned Movement successfully and wrongly argued that the Convention should meet to adopt measures that would stop Israel from building in what they termed the ``Occupied Palestinian Territory including Jerusalem.''
Only Israel and, I am proud to say, the United States voted against this United Nations Resolution, which carried by a vote of 115 to 2 with five abstentions. Unfortunately, with such a lopsided vote, we now face a situation in which the Swiss Government, as depositary of the Geneva Convention, has been asked to convene this conference on July 15, 1999.
This resolution, sponsored by Senators Schumer, Brownback and I, commends our Department of State for its strong opposition to the United Nations action and, in addition, asks the Swiss Government to refrain from holding this politicized convention. We intend to send a clear signal to the United Nations General Assembly about the inappropriateness of this resolution and urge our government to continue to work for the cancellation of the scheduled conference.
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