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UNITED NATIONS - The U.N. General Assembly overwhelmingly adopted a resolution Tuesday demanding that Israel comply with a world court decision and tear down the barrier it is building to seal off the West Bank.
The 150-6 vote was opposed by the United States, which argued that the resolution was unbalanced. Ten countries abstained.
The assembly's vote, like the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice, is not legally binding. But both have symbolic value as international statements of condemnation of the barrier.
Palestinian U.N. observer Nasser Al-Kidwa said the court's opinion and the resolution could be "the most important" since the General Assembly's 1947 partition of Palestine to allow the creation of the Jewish state of Israel.
The court, as well as the resolution, demand that the barrier be dismantled and reparations be paid to Palestinians harmed by its construction.
Israel has refused to recognize the July 9 world court ruling, saying it has no authority to deal with the issue, and officials have ordered construction of the barrier to go on.
Israeli U.N. Ambassador Dan Gillerman called the resolution "one-sided and totally counterproductive" and said construction of the barrier will continue to keep out Palestinian attackers.
"It is simply outrageous to respond with such vigor to a measure that saves lives and responds with such casual indifference and apathy to the ongoing campaign of Palestinian terrorism that takes lives. This is not justice but a perversion of justice," he said.
Also Tuesday, gunmen shot and wounded a strong critic of Yasser Arafat, the latest example of the chaos that has divided the Palestinian leader's Cabinet and sparked violent protests against his administration.
Nabil Amr, a Palestinian lawmaker and former Cabinet minister, was shot in the leg by unidentified attackers while on his way home in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Palestinians said. Doctors said he was not seriously wounded.
Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia, meanwhile, told Arafat he's determined to quit unless Arafat yields more power to the Cabinet. Arafat has refused to accept his resignation.
At the end of an emergency meeting Tuesday in Arafat's ruined West Bank headquarters, the two men deadlocked over who would have ultimate control over the security services and whether Qureia would stay in his job.
"The crisis goes on," said Saeb Erekat, a senior Cabinet minister.
Other ministers said Qureia ended the meeting by telling Arafat that his resignation stands and that he considered his administration a caretaker government.
The crisis has been brewing since late last week, when Qureia submitted his resignation in frustration over the breakdown of authority in Gaza and discontent over the disorder within Palestinian security services.
If he resigns and the government falls after less than a year in office, that would be a setback for Arafat, who wants to show some movement toward establishing democratic institutions in the Palestinian territories.
Qureia "told Arafat that his government must have real authority, especially over the security branches, in order for it to be effective," said Qadoura Fares, a minister without portfolio.
Also, Israeli soldiers clashed with Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas along the border Tuesday, leaving two soldiers and one guerrilla dead and prompting an Israeli general to threaten Hezbollah and its sponsors - Syria and Iran.
The renewed fighting, the most serious in months, followed a Beirut bombing Monday that killed a veteran Hezbollah commander. Hezbollah blamed Israel for the assassination, but the Israeli army denied involvement.