Question of Palestine

Background: The question of Palestine
Occupied by Israel since June 1967, the West Bank - including East Jerusalem- and the
Gaza Strip have come to constitute the occupied Palestinian territory (OPT).
These territories, along with Israel, form the area of the former British Mandate over
Palestine, intended under the terms of United Nations General Assembly Resolution 181
of 1947 to be partitioned into two States, one Arab and another Jewish.
While the State of Israel was established on 15 May 1948 and admitted to the United
Nations, a Palestinian State was not established.
The remaining territories of pre-1948 Palestine, the West Bank - including East
Jerusalem- and Gaza Strip, were administered from 1948 till 1967 by Jordan and Egypt,
respectively.
Since the occupation of the territories by Israel in 1967, the international community has
repeatedly upheld the need for implementation of Security Council resolutions 242 and
338, which call for withdrawal of Israel from the occupied territories.
Peace accords between the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), representing the
Palestinian people, and the Government of Israel since 1993 aimed at ending decades of
conflict through implementation the two-State solution.
The period since 1993 saw the Israeli military withdrawal from some parts of the OPT,
and the establishment of the Palestinian National Authority by the PLO in 1994 to
assume the tasks of government in these areas.
The international community was quick to support Palestinian State-building and
development efforts, with financial resources and technical assistance to public and
private sector institutions.
However, the intensification of the conflict and the bleak political horizon since
September 2000, Gaza’s blockade since June 2007, the tightening of the Israeli
movement restrictions in the OPT have reversed economic gains since 1993 with serious
socio-economic consequences. Furthermore, the expansion of the Israeli settlements in
the OPT, which has been declared as a "flagrant violation of international law” by Security
Council resolution 2334 (23 December 2016), disrupts the peace process and threatens
the Palestinian State formation process,
Nevertheless, the legitimacy of Palestinian statehood, long upheld by the United Nations
General Assembly, was given additional support by Security Council Resolution 1397 of
2002, which affirmed the international community´s vision of two States, Israel and
Palestine, living side by side within secure and recognized borders.
This global consensus has since become one of the major goals of initiatives to achieve
a permanent peace agreement.
United Nations and The Question of Palestine
The question of Palestine and Israel has commanded the attention of the UN since the
organization was founded.
The UN General Assembly voted the original partition of the land in November 1947 and
the UN deployed its first peacekeeping operation to monitor the ceasefire lines after the
war of 1948.
For many years, successive Israeli governments refused to consider a Palestinian state,
while most Arabs denied the legitimacy of Israel. In the 1970s both sides began to
recognize the need for compromise.
The Palestinians proposed a separate state, claiming as their homeland the territories
outside the 1948 ceasefire lines, territories occupied by Israel in the 1967 war. This idea
found widespread support in the international community, and Israel was called on to
withdraw from this land, as affirmed in UN Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338.
Israel's 1967 occupation of other territories complicated the matter. Israel seized Egypt's
Sinai Peninsula and Syria's Golan Heights and set up settlements in both. Israel also
invaded Lebanon in 1978 and 1982 and maintained a long-term occupation in the
southern part of the country.
These wars and occupations were related to the Palestine question and deepened the
political crisis surrounding it. Even after Israel eventually withdrew from Egypt and
Lebanon, the Palestine (and Golan) occupations continued.
Israel's settlement-building, and its construction of a massive border-wall that annexed
large swaths of Palestinian territory, has made resolution of the conflict far more difficult.
Since resolutions 242 and 338, the Security Council has taken no significant steps to end
the Israel-Palestine conflict. United States influence has generally kept the issue off the
Council's agenda.
When Council members have introduced resolutions, responding to periodic crises, the
US has repeatedly used symbolic weight. Both bodies would have been more effective if
governments had been willing to confront US displeasure and US pressure. Recent US
policy has only made matters worse.
Key issues that have plagued the stalled "peace process" include: Israel's occupation,
Israeli settlements and settlement-building, the Israeli wall, security for Israelis and
Palestinians, shared sovereignty over Jerusalem, and the right of return of 3.7 million
stateless Palestinian refugees.
The Question of Palestine and the Security
Council
Under the United Nations Charter, the Security Council has primary responsibility for the
maintenance of international peace and security.
Since 1948, the Council has addressed the situation in the Middle East and the
Palestinian question on many occasions.
When fighting broke out, the Council has called for, or ordered cease-fires. It also
dispatched military observers, and deployed UN peace-keeping forces in the region.
The Council has set the basic principles for a negotiated peaceful settlement (known as
the “land for peace” formula) by its resolutions 242 (1967) and 338 (1973).
The Council has, on numerous occasions, expressed concern about the situation on the
ground, declared null and void the measures taken by the Israeli Government to change
the status of Jerusalem, called for the cessation of Israeli settlement activity, which it
determined to have no legal validity, reaffirmed the applicability of the Fourth Geneva
Convention and called for the return of Palestinian deportees.
The Council has repeatedly called for the immediate resumption of the negotiations
within the current Middle East peace process with the aim of achieving an early final
settlement between the Israeli and Palestinian sides.
The Council affirmed the vision of two States, Israel and Palestine, living side by side
within secure and recognised borders, by its resolution 1397 (2002), and endorsed the
Quartet’s (UN, Russia, US and EU) Road Map by its resolution 1515 (2003).
By resolution 2334 (2016) the Council demanded that Israel immediately and completely
cease all settlement activities.

Question of Palestine

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Background: The question of Palestine

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