Washington, DC - The American Committee on Jerusalem (ACJ) strongly denounced Tuesday's vote by the Bush Administration against a United Nations General Assembly resolution calling for the annulment of Israel's ‘Jerusalem Law’ of 1980, unifying East and West Jerusalem into one city. In response to that action, U.N. Security Council resolution 476 of June 30, 1980 reiterated that Israel’s claim to Jerusalem is “null and void.” The U.S. vote was a departure from past votes on the issue, when the U.S. abstained on the resolution because the city's status is one of the final-status issues to be negotiated between Israel and the Palestinians.

The negative vote by the U.S. was one of only five other negative votes in the face of an overwhelming world consensus of 154 countries voting for the resolution. Commenting on the lopsided vote, ACJ president Professor Rashid Khalidi said, “As the supposed neutral third party and prime facilitator of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, the least we could have expected was a U.S. abstention on the vote.” Khalidi continued, “Such actions in fact impede the possibility of peace, by demonstrating that the U.S. picks and chooses which U.N. resolutions to enforce.”

11 Security Council resolutions have been passed since 1976 against Israeli claims to Jerusalem. Tuesday’s vote on Jerusalem was one of six resolutions overwhelmingly approved by the U.N. General Assembly over U.S. and Israeli objections, and which criticized Israeli policies and called for stepped-up efforts to bring peace to the Middle East.

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The ACJ is a coalition of all major Arab-American organizations dedicated to promoting a solution to Jerusalem which accommodates the attachments of the three faiths and the political aspirations of both peoples, Palestinians and Israelis. * 4201 Connecticut Ave., NW Suite 302 Washington, D.C. 20008 * Tel: (202) 237-0215 * Fax: (202) 244-3196 * e-mail: acj@acj.org