May 8, 2002	Wednesday	Safar 24, 1423

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UNITED NATIONS, May 7: The UN General Assembly would hold its tenth emergency special session late Tuesday to consider an agenda item on illegal “Israeli actions in Occupied East Jerusalem and the rest of the Occupied Palestinian Territory.”

The Arab and developing nations pressing to condemn Israel for atrocities in the Jenin refugee camp and for blocking a UN fact-finding mission from looking into the fighting in the camp.

A draft resolution introduced by Sudan on behalf of the Arab Group of nations and by South Africa on behalf of the Non-aligned Movement (NAM) of developing countries would ask Secretary-General Kofi Annan to submit a report on events in Jenin and other Palestinian cities within two weeks.

Annan called off the fact-finding mission to the Jenin camp on Thursday after he tried for 13 days to overcome Israeli objections to the group’s mandate and composition.

Following Annan’s announcement, the Palestinians and their Arab supporters demanded that the Security Council condemn Israel, but the council — whose veto-wielding members are the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China — was divided and took no action.

The Arab Group then decided to take the proposal to the 189-nation General Assembly, where support for the Palestinians is stronger than in the more powerful Security Council. The assembly’s resolutions cannot be vetoed but are not legally binding.

The Palestinians say that Israeli troops committed atrocities during the April attack, an accusation Israel vehemently denies, saying its forces tried to minimize civilian casualties.

The Palestinian UN observer, Nasser Al-Kidwa, said the Israelis fired missiles from helicopter gunships; used tanks and armed personnel carriers in a tiny, densely populated area; demolished homes with people still in them; blocked deliveries of food and medicine for 11 days and used Palestinians as human shields.