The resolution isn't legally binding but after more than six hours of extraordinary public negotiations, it not only won support from the European Union but was submitted for a vote by the 15-nation bloc, which is one of the sponsors of the "road map" peace plan.

In return for EU support, the Palestinians and their supporters agreed to drop a second resolution that would have asked the International Court of Justice at The Hague, Netherlands, for an advisory opinion on the legality of the barrier.

But the resolution raises the possibility of going to the court sometime in the future if Israel doesn't comply with the demand to dismantle the barrier a prospect that angered Israel's U.N. Ambassador Dan Gillerman.

Threats to turn the U.N.'s principal legal body "into a political weapon for one party to a conflict is a dangerous precedent," Gillerman warned. "It should be rejected out of hand, not legitimized by pandering in a negotiating process."

He didn't say whether Israel would halt construction and tear down the wall. But he called the negotiations over the resolution a "humiliating farce" and described the resolution as an "illegal and one-sided initiative."

The resolution requests Secretary-General Kofi Annan to submit periodic reports on Israel's compliance, with the first due within one month. Once the report is received, it says, "further actions should be considered, if necessary, within the United Nations system."

Gillerman demanded to know whether any nation "seriously thinks it legitimate for the secretary-general to focus a report on Israeli security measures but not on Palestinian violations and terrorism that necessitate those measures."

The Palestinian U.N. observer, Al-Kidwa, accused Gillerman of "intimidation and blackmail," stressing the political and legal importance of the resolution and thanking the European Union for submitting the draft for a vote.

The resolution "demands that Israel stop and reverse the construction of the wall in the occupied Palestinian territory, including in and around East Jerusalem, which is in departure of the Armistice Line of 1949 and is in contradiction to relevant provisions of international law."

To get the 15 EU nations to support the resolution, the Palestinians and their supporters agreed to eliminate a statement calling the barrier "illegal" and substitute the phrase calling it "in contradiction."

The resolution added a condemnation of Palestinian suicide bombings mentioning the Oct. 3 attack in Haifa that killed 21 Israelis. It also added a condemnation of the recent bomb attack in the Gaza Strip which killed three American security officers and deplored so-called "extrajudicial killings" by the Israelis, particularly Monday's attack in Gaza which Al-Kidwa said killed 12 Palestinians and injured 90 others.

The final round of negotiations dragged on for more than six hours after the vote was scheduled Tuesday afternoon, and moved into the corridor outside the General Assembly hall for several hours. There, EU ambassadors huddled in one area and Arab and Islamic ambassadors in another.

Italy's U.N. Ambassador Marcello Spatafora, whose country holds the EU presidency, moved between the two groups, sometimes with the British or French ambassadors alongside, conducting often heated negotiations with Al-Kidwa.

"This is really balanced," Spatafora said. "This is not only about the wall. It's about trying to get both parties to fulfill their obligations."

The resolution calls on both the Israelis and Palestinians to fulfill their obligations under the "road map" peace plan drafted by the EU, the United Nations, the United States and Russia.

Specifically, it says the Palestinians should "undertake visible efforts on the ground to arrest, disrupt, and restrain individuals and groups conducting and planning violent attacks." It says Israel should "take no actions undermining trust, including deportations and attacks on civilians and extrajudicial killings."

Just before the vote, Spatafora took the floor in the General Assembly hall and said the EU was tabling the compromise resolution to reflect "our determination to work for progress towards a just, lasting and comprehensive peace in the Middle East based on the vision of two states, Israel and Palestinian, living side by side in peace and security."

But despite the improvements in the EU-backed compromise, U.S. deputy ambassador James Cunningham said the United States couldn't support it because it still makes a legal judgment and doesn't name Palestinian terrorist groups carrying out suicide bombings in Israel.

photo credit and caption:

Israel's UN Ambassador Dan Gillerman reads his speech before a proposed UN resolution condemning Israel's construction of a barrier intended to cut it off from the West Bank inside the United Nations General Assembly, Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2003, in New York. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)