UNITED NATIONS, OCT 12: The United States urged the United Nations General Assembly on Monday to wind up its special committee on the human rights of Palestinians and other Arabs living under Israeli occupation."The committee is an anachronism," US Area Advisor Doug Keene told the Assembly. "Its existence is inconsistent with the joint efforts Israel and the Palestinians are making to resolve their differences."The Assembly's decolonisation committee began debating the annual report of the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices on Monday and was due to vote on it on Thursday.The 51-page report contains 354 items quoting Israeli press reports on official policy and events in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Another 12 paragraphs are devoted to the Israeli-occupied Golan heights.The preamble to the report refers to "Israeli lack of compliance with the provisions of the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War."Keene told the Assembly that the US government agreed that the Geneva Convention applied to territories occupied by Israel since 1967, but added: ``We oppose the specific references to Jerusalem."The Sharm el-Sheikh interim peace accord, signed on September 4, was "the latest of a long line of agreements leading to permanent status negotiations," Keene said. He urged the Assembly "to delete the standard call for the committee to continue its work and report next year."
