UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan reported today that Israel has failed to comply with a General Assembly demand that it halt construction of a huge wall through Palestinian West Bank lands.
The official finding lays the groundwork for the Palestinians to return to the 191-nation assembly to seek further action against Israel, probably next week.
"I have concluded that Israel is not in compliance with the assembly's demand that it 'stop and reverse the construction of the wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory,'" said the report, requested by the assembly in a resolution on October 21st.
Mr Annan acknowledged Israel's "right and duty to protect its people against terrorist attacks." But doing so by building what Israel calls a "security fence" that veers as much as 13 miles from its 1967 border with the West Bank would violate international law and increase Palestinian suffering, he said.
It also "could damage the longer-term prospects for peace by making the creation of an independent, viable and contiguous Palestinian state more difficult," his report concluded.
Mr Annan's report said the barrier would cut off 16.6 per cent of West Bank land, home to 17,000 Palestinians in the West Bank and 220,000 in East Jerusalem. "If the full route is completed, another 160,000 Palestinians will live in enclaves, areas where the barrier almost completely encircles communities and tracts of land."
Under Israeli army orders, Palestinians living between the barrier and the 1967 border must obtain special permits to remain in their homes while Israeli residents can move freely in and out of those areas.
The General Assembly voted 144-4 with 12 abstentions last month to adopt a resolution demanding that Israel halt construction of the barrier. Only the United States, Israel, the Marshall Islands and Micronesia voted against it.