United Nations
The United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution by 170 votes to 6 (Australia, Canada, Israel, Marshall Islands, Palau, and United States voting against) calling upon Israel to assume responsibility for compensation for the costs of repairing the environmental damage and restoration of the marine environment.
In the United Nations Second Committee where the draft resolution was discussed, the United States explained its opposition in terms of its one-sided and inappropriate nature, while Canada felt that "the General Assembly was not the appropriate forum to address questions of legal liability or compensation of the cost of repairing environmental damage". Israel objected to the omission of any mention of "the entire reason for the conflict", namely that "Hizbollah terrorists had crossed an internationally recognized border into Israel and kidnapped and killed Israeli soldiers", as well as the lack of concern for the "half a million trees and 52,000 dunams of forest that had burnt down in Israel as a result of fires caused by Hizbollah rockets; the 25 Israeli cement and asbestos buildings that had been damaged, polluting an area of 20,000 square metres; or the direct hit by a Katyusha rocket on a sludge-thickening plant in Tzafat."
The estimate by the UN of the cost of the oil spill in terms of harm to the Lebanese economy and cleaning up operations is $203million. Israel has refused to answer any request for compensation.
Following this there was a precise rerun of the discussion and vote in December 2007, with the Australia, Canada, the Marshall Islands, Nauru, Palau and the United States coming out again against a General Assembly Resolution requesting Israel to take responsibility. In its defence the ambassador from Israel said the failure to mention the environmental catastrophes in Israel (half a million trees on fire), as well as the entire cause of the conflict (Hizbollah crossing the southern border of Lebanon to kidnap Israeli soldiers) proved that the resolution was an act of political demonization.
Read more about this topic: Jiyeh Power Station Oil Spill, International Response
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“The United Nations cannot do anything, and never could; it is not an animate entity or agent. It is a place, a stage, a forum and a shrine ... a place to which powerful people can repair when they are fearful about the course on which their own rhetoric seems to be propelling them.”
—Conor Cruise O’Brien (b. 1917)