[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 83 (Monday, June 14, 1999)]
[Senate]
[Page S6948]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 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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