Israel Condemned by U.N. for Deaths of 19 Palestinians : Diplomacy: The United States joins in a unanimous vote expressing ‘alarm’ at violence used by security force. The PLO says the resolution doesn’t go far enough.

UNITED NATIONS —  The United States, usually a staunch defender of Israel, joined other members of the U.N. Security Council late Friday in unanimously condemning that nation for the killing of more than 19 Palestinians in East Jerusalem.

Under intense pressure from its Arab allies in the Persian Gulf to show evenhandedness, the Bush Administration joined in expressing “alarm” at the violence at holy places in Jerusalem last Monday and denouncing “especially the acts of violence committed by Israeli security forces resulting in injuries and loss of human life.”

The resolution stopped short of Arab demands that the United Nations be given the right to intervene in Israel’s control over occupied territories. Instead, it asks the secretary general to send a mission to Jerusalem to investigate the violence.

All 15 Security Council members voted for the resolution sponsored by Britain, the Soviet Union, Zaire, France, the Ivory Coast and Finland.

Coming in the midst of the Persian Gulf crisis resulting from Iraq’s occupation of Kuwait, the vote carried added urgency.

The United States was in an extremely delicate position throughout the long negotiations leading up to the vote.

There was intense pressure by Arab nations participating in the alliance against Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to join in the censure of Israel.

“My government supports this resolution on the tragic events that occurred in Jerusalem on Oct. 8,” said Thomas R. Pickering, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

That day, Palestinians on the Temple Mount, also known as Haram al Sharif, were hurling rocks down on Jews praying at the Western Wall when police intervened and began shooting, killing 19, according to Israeli officials, and injured about 150. Palestinians have put the death toll higher. Twenty-two Jewish worshipers were also injured.

“My government wishes to extend its condolences to the families and the friends of those many innocent persons and worshipers who were victims of the violence on that sad day,” Pickering said.

“This is an incident that never should have happened. The Security Council grieves for those lost and injured, condemns the acts of violence both provocative and reactive.

” . . . But we want to be clear for the record that this resolution should not be misinterpreted. The council’s action tonight does not empower it to address any subject beyond the matters directly contained in this resolution.”

Before the balloting that took place just before midnight Friday, the representative of the Palestine Liberation Organization urged the council to adopt harsher measures.

“We feel that the draft is insufficient,” said Nasser Kidwa, the PLO’s alternate permanent observer at the United Nations.

” . . . Unfortunately we are expecting Israel to continue oppressing the Palestine people. We are expecting Israel not to respect even what was announced in the resolution.”

As he spoke, Israel’s U.N. ambassador, Johanan Bein, looked on impassively.

After five days of wrangling and the highest level of behind-the-scenes diplomacy, the vote took just a little more than a minute. Members voted by a show of hands.

Speaker after speaker attacked Israel for its actions against the Palestinians in East Jerusalem. Finally, Bein spoke last.

“Israel regrets the Security Council resolution which failed to condemn the cause of the tragic events in Jerusalem, an unprovoked Arab attack on Jewish worshipers at the holiest site of the Jewish people, the Western Wall,” the ambassador said.

“It is also regrettable the Security Council fell into the trap laid by Saddam Hussein and his PLO supporters who inspired the riots to divert attention from Iraq’s aggression in the gulf. Such a resolution cannot contribute to the efforts to restore tranquility, normalcy and peace.”

“This was not in our view a perfect resolution by any means,” Pickering said after the Security Council had adjourned.

“It was only evident that we got unanimity at the very last moment,” said the council’s president, David Hannay, the British ambassador.

“But if you get it, it is, of course, a pearl of considerable price.”

Seven nonaligned nations, including partisans of the PLO, on Monday submitted a resolution highly critical of Israel and calling for a three-member Security Council fact-finding mission to Jerusalem. The mission was to report back on ways and means of ensuring the safety of Palestinians under Israeli occupation.

Instead, U.N. Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar will send a mission with a lesser mandate to the region.

On Tuesday, the U.S. submitted its own resolution, critical of Israel but also including an implied rebuff to Arab demonstrators. It welcomed the decision by Perez de Cuellar to send a mission to Jerusalem to investigate.

In the words of one diplomat, the nonaligned resolution “evaporated” Friday night.

The resolution passed by the council calls upon Israel to “abide scrupulously by its legal obligations and responsibilities under the Fourth Geneva Convention.”

For five days, diplomats had worked feverishly to try to bridge the gap between the two resolutions. At the same time, the United States had moved to exert pressure on the seven nonaligned nations that signed the resolution.

Although the United States has usually firmly backed Israel in the Security Council, at times it has voted against it. In January, 1988, the United States voted to condemn Israel’s plan to expel nine Palestinians from the occupied West Bank; in 1982, the Americans also voted against Israel over the seizure of Beirut.

The stakes for both Israel and the Palestinians go far beyond the incident Monday on the Temple Mount because the U.N. action could have an impact on the very legitimacy of Israel’s control of the city it considers its capital.

East Jerusalem, including the walled Old City and the Temple Mount area, were controlled by Jordan until the Israeli army captured it in the 1967 Arab-Israel War. Unlike the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Israel annexed East Jerusalem almost immediately.

The United Nations, the United States and most other nations have never recognized the annexation of the still predominantly Arab sector of the city, although most countries agree that the status of East Jerusalem is different from that of the rest of the occupied territories.

Goldman reported from the United Nations and Kempster reported from Washington.