BCNMUN 2014
Forum:Security Council
Issue: The question of Palestine
Student Officer:Defne Cezayirli
Position: Co-Chair
Introduction
Israel, the world’s only Jewish state, and Palestine, a Muslim state, have been
disputing over the distribution of land for decades, which we now call the IsraeliPalestinian conflict.The dispute began in the early 20th century, when Jews fleeing
from Europe, with the rise of anti-Semitism, wanted to settle in what was then an
Arab-Muslim majority territory.
The tensions between Israel and Hamas, who won increasing financial and political
support of Iran, escalated until late 2008, when Israel launched operation Cast Lead
(the Gaza War). By February 2009, a cease-fire was signed with international
mediation between the parties, though small and sporadic eruptions of violence
continued. The question of whether Gaza remains occupied following Israel's
withdrawal remains contentious. Israel insists that its full withdrawal from Gaza
means it does not occupy Gaza. The UN has taken no position over whether Gaza
remains occupied. Palestinian leaders insist that the Israeli decision, following
attacks from Hamas, to impose a weapons blockade of Gaza, Israel's control of Gaza
crossing points into Israel, and Israel's control of air above and sea around Gaza
constitutes continued Israeli occupation.
Recent Events
The ongoing violence between Israel and Gaza-based militant groups including
Hamas, which has killed 1,777 Palestinians and 68 Israelis, was sparked by the June
10 murder of three young Israeli students. It spiraled into an Israeli ground invasion
of Gaza.
Eyal Yifrah, Gilad Shaar, and Naftali Frenkel disappeared while in the West Bank,
where they were studying at a yeshiva. Israel conducted a massive manhunt in the
Palestinian territory, alleging members of Hamas abducted them. (Israeli officials
appear to have disagreed from the start as to whether the killers were acting on
behalf of Hamas or were acting on their own.) The boys were found dead on June
30th, apparently executed.
Israel also responded to the deaths with a limited bombing campaign in Gaza against
Hamas targets there, beginning the night of the boys were found. Palestinian militant
groups (though, notably, not Hamas) in Gaza fired rockets into Israel.
Then, on July 2, a 16-year-old Palestinian named Muhammed Abu Khdeir was found
dead near his Jerusalem home, apparently burned to death. Police arrested six
Israelis for Khdeir's murder, telling reporters that the killing has been "nationalistic."
This followed a string of violence against Palestinians by settlers and other Israelis,
within a climate of anti-Palestinian sentiment and some inflammatory statements by
1 right-wing Israeli politicians, all of which had been inflamed further by Israeli national
outrage over the murders of the three Israeli students.
On July 5th, a video surfaced showing Tariq Abu Khdeir, Muhammed's 15-year-old
Palestinian-American cousin, getting brutally beaten while detained by Israeli police
after a Palestinian demonstration in East Jerusalem. Palestinians became furious
about the Khdeir boys, about the bombings in Gaza, and about the clampdown on
the West Bank during the search for the murdered Israelis. There were riots in
Jerusalem, the West Bank, and some Israeli Arab towns.
There had been sporadic rocket fire throughout the crisis, but Hamas launched a
wave of 40 rockets on July 8th, for which it claimed responsibility for the first time
since 2012. Then Israel launched more strikes in Gaza, as part of what Netanyahu
said was an effort to make Hamas "pay a heavy price."
There seemed like a brief chance for a ceasefire on July 15th, when Israel accepted
an Egypt-brokered deal to stop the fighting. But Hamas' military wing continued firing
rockets and appeared to reject the ceasefire.
On July 17, Israel invaded Gaza — its first ground invasion since early 2009 —
saying it would target and destroy the tunnels Hamas had built from Gaza into Israel.
While the tunnels into Egypt are largely used to ferry people and supplies around
Israel's blockade, the tunnels into Israel were used primarily to allow Hamas to attack
Israelis. After several very bloody days of fighting, which left parts of Gaza
devastated and sent one in four Gazans fleeing from their homes, Israel withdrew its
troops on August 5.
Current Situation and Peace Process
The ongoing violence between Israel and Gaza-based militant groups including
Hamas, which has killed 1,777 Palestinians and 68 Israelis, was sparked by the June
10 murder of three young Israeli students. It spiraled into an Israeli ground invasion
of Gaza.
Sometimes called "Oslo" after the 1993 Oslo Accords that kicked it off, the peace
process is an ongoing American-mediated effort to broker a peace treaty between
Israelis and Palestinians. The goal is a "final status agreement," which would
establish a Palestinian state in Gaza and the West Bank in exchange for Palestinians
agreeing to permanently end attacks on Israeli targets - a formula often called "land
for peace."
Despite Secretary of State John Kerry's fairly intense efforts to revive the peace
process, the talks are stalled. The most recent stumbling block is the Palestinian
unity deal between Hamas and Fatah, which prompted Israel, who believes Hamas
will never make a deal, to suspend talks on April 24th.
This is far from the first time the peace process looked stuck; in fact, many people
believed the peace process to be dead in January 2001. Palestinian leader Yasser
Arafat had just rejected his Israeli counterpart Ehud Barak's peace offer (there's huge
disagreement as to just what that offer entailed). Moreover, renewed talks failed to
generate an agreement, and worsening violence during the Second Intifada violence
made another round of talks seem impossible.
2 Despite the 2001 failure, the general Oslo "land for peace" framework remains the
dominant American and international approach to resolving the conflict. The Bush
administration pushed its own update on Oslo, called the "road map," and the
Obama administration has made the peace process a significant foreign policy
priority. Whether the current initiative can make progress depends on resolving the
four core issues that have plagued the peace process: West Bank
borders/settlements, Israeli security, Palestinian refugees, and Jerusalem.
So far, there's been little success, and two major hurdles: Israel continues to expand
West Bank settlements, which Palestinians see as a de facto campaign to erase the
Palestinian state outright, and the Palestinians remain politically divided between
Fatah and Hamas and thus unable to negotiate jointly.
The new Fatah-Hamas agreement appears to have replaced the problem posed by
Palestinian division with a new, seemingly bigger one. The Israeli government is
convinced that Hamas' fundamental opposition to Israel's existence precludes any
serious commitment to a peace deal. Israel, then, believes any unity deal Hamas can
support is tantamount to Palestinians renouncing negotiations in toto.
As a consequence, Israel has suspended talks and may impose sanctions on the
Palestinian Authority. It's hard to see what could resolve this impasse other than
Israel changing its view of Hamas or Hamas renouncing its commitment to
destroying Israel — neither of which are likely.
Israel and Hamas are currently negotiating a long-term ceasefire in Cairo. The
Egyptian government is mediating the talks.
Key terms Defined
Anti-Semitism
Anti-Semitism is prejudice against, hatred of, or discrimination against Jews as a
national, ethnic, religious or racial group. It is said to be the primary reason of the
fleeing of Jews to the lands, thus the start of the Zionist movement.
Zionism
Zionism is the ideology that considers Judaism both a religion and a nationality; thus,
supports the creation of a separate Jewish State. It is widely suggested that Zionism,
founded as a result of anti-Semitism, is the reason for the Jews’ return to the land.
Zionists all agree upon the creation of Israel, though they part on the ideal
governance. The Zionist left is in support of a secular government that intervenes to
economy and the trade of Israeli-controlled land with Arab nations for peace
purposes; while the Zionist right, currently more widely accepted, seeks for less
secular governance and a more liberal economy, and opposes the ‘land for peace’
deals.
Nakba
The 1948 war uprooted 700,000 Palestinians from their homes, creating a refugee
crisis that is still not resolved. Palestinians call this mass eviction the Nakba - Arabic
3 for "catastrophe" - and its legacy remains one of the most intractable issues in
ongoing peace negotiations.
Jerusalem
Jerusalem is a city that straddles the border between Israel and the West Bank. It's
home to some of the holiest sites in both Judaism and Islam, and so both Israel and
Palestine want to make it their capital. How to split the city fairly remains one of the
fundamental issues dividing Israelis and Palestinians. For the first 20 years of Israel's
existence, Jerusalem was divided. Despite this, since Jews make up about two-thirds
of the city Israel calls Jerusalem its undivided capital today; but almost no one
(including the United States) recognizes it as such. UN Security Council Resolution
478 condemns Israel's decision to annex East Jerusalem as a violation of
international law and calls for a compromise solution.
West Bank
The West Bank is a chunk of land in eastern Israel. It's home to 2.6 million
Palestinians, and would make up the heart of any Palestinian state. Palestinians (and
most of the international community) consider it illegally occupied Palestinian land.
Gaza
Gaza is a densely populated strip of land that is mostly surrounded by Israel and
peopled almost exclusively by Palestinians. Israel used to have a military presence,
but withdrew unilaterally in 2005. It's currently under Israeli blockade.
Egypt controlled Gaza until 1967, when Israel occupied it (along with the West Bank)
in the Six Day War. Until 2005, Israeli military authorities controlled Gaza in the same
way they control the West Bank, and Jews were permitted to settle there. In 2005,
then-Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon pulled out Israeli troops and settlers
unilaterally. Gaza is governed by the Islamist group Hamas, which formed in 1987 as
a militant "resistance" group against Israel and won political power in a 2006 U.S.based election. Hamas' takeover of Gaza prompted an Israeli blockade of the flow of
commercial goods into Gaza. Israel has eased the blockade over time, but the cutoff
of basic supplies like fuel still does significant humanitarian harm by cutting off
access to electricity, food, and medicine.
Israeli settlements
Settlements are communities of Jews that have been moving in to the West Bank
since it came under Israeli occupation in 1967. Some of the settlers move there for
religious reasons, some because they want to claim the West Bank territory as Israeli
land, and some because the housing there tends to be cheap and subsidized.
Settlements are generally considered to be a major impediment to peace, since they
blur or constrain the boundaries of any future Palestinian state.Most international
lawyers believe settlements violate the Fourth Geneva Convention, which prohibits
the transfer of population into occupied territories. Israel disputes that.
Intifadas
The intifadas were two Palestinian uprisings against Israel, the first in the late 1980s
and the second in the early 2000s.
4 The First Intifada was a largely spontaneous series of Palestinian demonstrations,
non-violent actions like mass boycotts and Palestinians refusing to work jobs in
Israel, and attacks (using rocks, Molotov cocktails, and occasionally firearms) on
Israelis. The Israeli military responded to the protests and attacks with heavy force.
The Second, and far bloodier, Intifada grew out of the peace process' collapse in
2000. Negotiations between Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and PLO Chairman
Yasser Arafat broke down, and the Intifada began shortly afterwards. While both
Arafat and Sharon played some part, the central cause was likely a basic mistrust
between the two sides that made war inevitable after peace talks broke down.
BDS
BDS is an activist movement aimed at creating costs to Israel's Palestinian policy
through boycotts of Israeli goods and institutions, divestment from Israeli companies,
and sanctions on the nation itself. Hence the acronym BDS - boycott, divestment,
and sanctions.The movement to accomplish this goal is coordinated by the BDS
National Council (BNC), which guides local campaigns around the globe. As the
Israeli-Palestinian drags on, many Israelis worry that BDS will become more
mainstream. Even Secretary of State John Kerry has warned that BDS could end up
being a real problem for Israel if it doesn't make peace with the Palestinians.
The Israeli Wall
The Israel Wall is a separation barrier built by Israel in the West Bank or along the
1949 Armistice Line ("Green Line"). Upon completion, its total length will be
approximately 700 kilometres (430 mi) and include on the western side
approximately 9.4% of the West Bank and 23,000 Palestinians.
Israel argues that it protects civilians from Palestinian terrorism such as suicide
bombing attacks that increased significantly during the Second Intifada. Between
2000 and July 2003 (completion of the "first continuous segment"), 73 suicide
bombings were carried out from the West Bank. However, from August 2003 to the
end of 2006, only 12 attacks were carried out.
On July 9, 2004 ruling the International Court of Justice advised that the barrier is a
violation of international law, that it should be removed, that Arab residents should be
compensated for any damage done, and that other states take action to obtain
Israel's compliance with the Fourth Geneva Convention. The ICJ said that an
occupying power couldn’t claim that the lawful inhabitants of the occupied territory
constitute a "foreign" threat for the purposes of Article 51 of the UN Charter. It also
explained that necessity might constitute a circumstance precluding wrongfulness
under certain very limited circumstances, but that Article 25 of the UN Declaration on
Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts bars a defense of necessity
if the State has contributed to the situation of necessity. The Court cited illegal
interference by the government of Israel with the Palestinian's national right to selfdetermination; and land confiscations, house demolitions, the creation of enclaves,
and restrictions on movement and access to water, food, education, health care,
work, and an adequate standard of living in violation of Israel's obligations under
international law. The Court also said that Israeli settlements had been established
and that Palestinians had been displaced in violation of Article 49, paragraph 6, of
the Fourth Geneva Convention. On request of the ICJ, Palestine submitted a copious
statement. The UN Fact Finding Mission and several UN Rapporteurs subsequently
said that in the movement and access policy there has been a violation of the right
not to be discriminated against on the basis of race or national origin.
5 Camp David Accords
Egyptian President Anwar El Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin
signed the Camp David Accords on 17 September 1978, following thirteen days of
secret negotiations at Camp David. The two framework agreements were signed at
the White House, and were witnessed by United States President Jimmy Carter. The
second of these frameworks led directly to the 1979 Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty.
The Camp David Accords were the result of 14 months of diplomatic efforts by Egypt,
Israel, and the United States that began after Jimmy Carter became President.
Following the advice of a Brookings Institution report, Carter opted to replace the
incremental, bilateral peace talks which had characterized Henry Kissinger's shuttle
diplomacy following the 1973 Yom Kippur War with a comprehensive, multilateral
approach. The Yom Kippur War further complicated efforts to achieve the objectives
written in United Nations Security Council Resolution 242.
The efforts initially focused on a comprehensive resolution of disputes between Israel
and the Arab countries, gradually evolved into a search for a bilateral agreement
between Israel and Egypt
The Mitchell Report
The Mitchell Report, (officially the Sharm el-Sheikh Fact-Finding Committee Report)
is a report that was created by an international fact-finding committee, led by former
US Senator George Mitchell. It was published on 30 April 2001, as the product of an
Emergency Summit on 17 October 2000, when the parties decided to establish a
fact-finding committee to investigate the causes of the Second Intifada, and to pave
the way back to negotiations. The report describes possible causes of the al-Aqsa
Intifada, and gives recommendations to end the violence, rebuild confidence and
resume negotiations.
Full report here:
http://eeas.europa.eu/mepp/docs/mitchell_report_2001_en.pdf
The Road Map
The Quartet - composed of the United States, the European Union, Russia and the
United Nations - came together in 2002 to explore new options for Israeli-Palestinian
peace. In April 2003, the Quartet released its "Performance-based Roadmap to a
Permanent Two-State Solution to the Israeli-Palestinian Crisis." The Roadmap
outlines a three-stage program leading to an independent Palestinian state and a
"final and comprehensive settlement of the Israel-Palestine conflict" by 2005. But as
a "performance-driven" process with no enforcement mechanism, the Roadmap
depended on the good faith of all sides and their voluntary compliance with
obligations under the plan.
Neither Israel nor the Palestinian Authority has demonstrated such compliance. The
Roadmap requires that the Palestinians "immediately undertake an unconditional
cessation of violence" and that Israel "freezes all settlement activity." Yet Israel
continues to build settlements and construct its illegal separation wall in the West
Bank. Israeli aggression, particularly in the form of assassination attempts, led to the
breakdown of a unilateral Palestinian ceasefire negotiated by then-Prime Minister
Mahmoud Abbas. Israeli Prime Minister Sharon has refused to consider Arafat a
partner for negotiations, weakening the Palestinian leader's authority. Violence has
continued, the Quartet has shown no capacity for imposing requirements on the
parties and the Roadmap has steadily lost credibility.
6 The given link is to a detailed United Nations page on the Road Map:
http://www.un.org/News/dh/mideast/roadmap122002.pdf
Timeline of Events
1947 –At the first special session of the General Assembly, which began on 28 April
1947, five Arab countries — Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Syria — tried
unsuccessfully to include in the agenda an item that would address “the termination
of the Mandate over Palestine and the declaration of its independence”. The Jewish
Agency for Palestine presented the Jewish case, while the Arab Higher Committee
spoke for the Palestinian Arabs.
1948– Britain relinquished its Mandate over Palestine and disengaged Palestine’s
forces. On the same day, the Jewish Agency proclaimed the establishment of the
State of Israel on the territory allotted to it by the partition plan. Fierce hostilities
immediately broke out between the Arab and Jewish communities. The next day, the
United Nations troops of the neighboring Arab States entered the territory to assist
the Palestinian Arabs.
The fighting was halted after several weeks, under a four-week truce called for by the
Security Council on 29 May 1948. The hostilities had created a major humanitarian
crisis, with almost 750,000 Palestinians being uprooted from their land and becoming
refugees. On 17 September 1948, while in the middle of negotiations between the
parties, Count Bernadotte was shot and killed in the Israeli-held sector of Jerusalem.
His deputy, Ralph Bunche, of the United States, was appointed as Acting Mediator.
1949 – On May 1949, Isreal became a member of the United Nations. Between
February and July 1949, under United Nations auspices, armistice agreements were
signed between Israel, on the one hand, and Egypt, Jordan,
Lebanon and Syria on the other. The agreements, which were similar in general
content, accepted the establishment of the armistice as an indispensable step
towards the restoration of peace in Palestine. They also made clear that the purpose
of the armistice was not to establish or recognize any territorial, custodial or other
rights, claims or interests of any party. In August of 1949, the Security Council
Chapter 2: The Partition Plan and the end of the British mandate 11 called for United
Nations Truce Supervision Organization (UNSTO) observers to supervise the
armistice. In accordance with Council decisions, UNTSO observers remain stationed
in the Middle East to this day.
1967-In 1967, Israel fought a war (often referred to as the Six Day War) with Egypt,
Syria, and Jordan. Israel fired the first shot, but claims it was preempting an imminent
Egyptian attack; Arabs disagree, casting Israel as an aggressor. In six days, Israel
routed the Arab powers, taking the West Bank and East Jerusalem from Jordan and
the Golden Heights-which she still occupies.
1974 -On 14 October 1974, the General Assembly, through resolution 3210 (XXIX)
recognized the PLO as the representative of the Palestinian people and invited it to
participate in the deliberations of the General Assembly on the Question of Palestine
in plenary meetings. Accordingly, Yasser Arafat addressed the Assembly on 13
November 1974.
1975 - The Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian
People (CEIRPP) was founded in 1975, by Resolution 3376 of the United Nations
General Assembly. In its inception year, the CEIRPP urged the SC to promote action
for a fair solution- recommending “a two-phase plan for the return of Palestinian to
7 their homes and property, a timetable for the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the
occupied territories by 1 June 1977, with the provision, if necessary, of temporary
peacekeeping forces to facilitate the process.” The committee oversees "a program
of implementation to enable the Palestinian people to exercise their inalienable right
to self-determination without external interference, national independence and
sovereignty; and to return to their homes and property." The committee reports to the
Assembly annually, since the mandate is renewed each year.
2014 -On 23 April 2014, Fatah and Hamas announced a new reconciliation, which
would see a unity government formed within five weeks, ahead of a presidential and
parliamentary election within six months. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud
Abbas said the reconciliation deal did not contradict their commitment to peace with
Israel on the basis of a two-state solution.
In the midst of negotiations to resolve the 2014 Israel–Gaza conflict, the Shin Bet
revealed an alleged plot by Hamas to depose Fatah rule in the West Bank. This
would be achieved by deploying Hamas cells around the West Bank to incite a third
intifada and overwhelm Palestinian Authority forces. More than 90 people were
arrested. President Abbas said the plot was "a grave threat to the unity of the
Palestinian people and its future."
Major Countries and Organizations Involved
Palestine
Since 2006, the Palestinian side has been fractured by conflict between the two
major factions: Fatah, the traditionally dominant party, and its later electoral
challenger, Hamas. After Hamas's electoral victory in 2006 the US, EU, and Israel
refused to recognize its government and much of the funding to the Palestinian
National Authority was suspended. A year later, following Hamas' seizure of power in
the Gaza Strip in June 2007, the territory officially recognized as the State of
Palestine (former Palestinian National Authority – the Palestinian interim governing
body) is split between Fatah in the West Bank, and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The
division of governance between the parties has effectively resulted in the collapse of
bipartisan governance of the Palestinian National Authority (PA).
Israel
In a report published in February 2014 covering incidents over the three year period
of 2011-2013, Amnesty International asserted that Israeli forces employed reckless
violence in the West Bank, and in some instances appeared to engage in willful
killings which would be tantamount to war crimes. Besides the numerous fatalities,
Amnesty said at least 261 Palestinians, including 67 children, had been gravely
injured by Israeli use of live ammunition. In this same period, 45 Palestinians,
including 6 children had been killed. Amnesty's review of 25 civilians deaths
concluded that in no case was there evidence of the Palestinians posing an imminent
threat. At the same time, over 8,000 Palestinians suffered serious injuries from other
means, including rubber-coated metal bullets. Only one IDF soldier was convicted,
killing a Palestinian attempting to enter Israel illegally. The soldier was demoted and
given a 1-year sentence with a five-year suspension. The IDF answered the charges
stating that its army held itself "to the highest of professional standards," adding that
when there was suspicion of wrongdoing, it investigated and took action "where
appropriate".
8 United States of America
The United States of America has provided both military and political support to
Israel. Unnamed US diplomatic sources confirmed on or around January 25, 2009
that United States Navy warships stationed in the Gulf of Aden had been ordered to
track Iranian arms shipments. Israeli intelligence reports that were distributed to
cabinet ministers suggested that Iran's Revolutionary Guard has an arms resupply
program for Gaza.The U.S. initially blocked the 30 December 2008 ceasefire
proposal at the U.N. Security Council. On 31 December, the U.S. sought to hire a
German merchant ship to deliver more ammunition to a U.S. supply base in Israel.
Arms and munitions from such bases can be handed over to Israeli use in case of an
emergency. The United States was the only UNSC member that refused to support
the 8 January 2009 ceasefire resolution.Other Security Council members were
stunned by the U.S. abstention.
Egypt
Egypt blocked off the Gaza Strip, and when Egyptian authorities denied foreign
doctors entry into the area, it was seen as abetting Israel's siege of the strip. Cairo
has officially refused to give an Iranian relief ship permission to unload Gaza-bound
humanitarian aid at an Egyptian seaport. On 28 December 2008, the second day of
the war, after the first bombing of the Rafah tunnels, hundreds of young Palestinians
tried to seek refuge in Egypt. Egyptian guards opened fire on unarmed civilians and
injured 10 Palestinians.
Iran
The Iranian government believes Israel is fundamentally illegitimate and supports the
most hard-line anti-Israeli Arab factions. Israel sees Iran's nuclear program as a
direct and existential threat, and Iran feels the same about Israel's officially
undeclared nuclear weapons. Iran has provided significant military and financial
backing to Hezbollah, Hamas, and Syria, the "Axis of Resistance" to Israeli and
Western interests in the Middle East. The ongoing Syrian civil war, which put the
Syrian government on the wrong side of Arab public opinion, has pushed Hamas
away from the other three parties.
Turkey
Long on good terms with Israel, Turkey has become increasingly pro-Palestinian in
recent years. Its Islamist Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has positioned
himself as a champion of the Palestinian cause for ideological, domestic, and
geopolitical reasons. Israeli-Turkish conflict over an Israeli raid on a Turkish aid
mission to Gaza severed diplomatic relations between the two countries, though
relations may be improving after Israel apologized.
Saudi Arabia
The Kingdom donates hundreds of millions of dollars to the Palestinian Authority and
is the driving force behind an Arab League peace plan floated as an alternative to
traditional Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. Though Saudi Arabia has yet to recognize
Israel, their mutual hostility towards Iran has built an unprecedented working
relationship between the Saudi and Israeli governments.
9 Palestinian Liberation Organization
The Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) is the national representative of the
Palestinian people. It runs the Palestinian National Authority (PA), the semiautonomous government tasked with managing the Palestinian territories until it
makes a deal with Israel. In practice, the PLO runs the government in the West Bank
but not in Gaza, which is governed by Hamas. In 1993, the PLO accepted Israel's
right to exist in exchange for Israel recognizing it as the legitimate representative of
Palestinians. That was the beginning of real peace negotiations between the two
sides.
Fatah
Fatah is a major Palestinian secular nationalist political party that began in 1965 as
the Palestinian National Liberation Movement. Yasser Arafat and friends from Algeria
founded the organization, which was originally opposed to the Palestine Liberation
Organization that is today one of the largest terror organizations in the world. With
Syrian support, Fatah started launching terrorist raids against Israeli targets in
January 1965 from Jordan, Lebanon and Egyptian-occupied Gaza. Fatah carried out
dozens of raids exclusively against civilian targets in its early years. After taking over
the PLO in 1968, its popularity among the Palestinian public decreased significantly.
Today, Fatah is the PLO's most prominent faction.
Hamas
Hamas is a Palestinian Islamist political organization and militant group that has
waged war on Israel since its 1987 founding. It seeks to replace Israel with a
Palestinian state. It also governs Gaza independently of the Palestinian Authority.
Hamas' charter calls for the destruction of Israel. Though Hamas does not recognize
Israel's legitimacy, in 2011 it committed to a Palestinian state in Gaza and the West
Bank. It's not clear whether Hamas could reconcile itself to the existence of Israel.
Hamas led the charge in using suicide bombings against Israel in the 1990s and
2000s, though in recent years it has shifted to rockets and mortars as its weapons of
choice. The organization also offers Palestinians a robust network of social services,
which it developed as an alternative to deeply corrupt PA institutions. In 2006,
Hamas won a slight majority of the seats in the Palestinian Authority legislative
elections.
Previous attempts to solve the issue
Partition Plan
The United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine was a proposal developed by the
United Nations, which recommended a partition with Economic Union of Mandatory
Palestine to follow the termination of the British Mandate. On 29 November 1947, the
U.N. General Assembly adopted a resolution recommending the adoption and
implementation of the Plan as Resolution 181(II).
The resolution recommended the creation of independent Arab and Jewish States
and the Special International Regime for the City of Jerusalem. The Partition Plan, a
four-part document attached to the resolution, provided for the termination of the
Mandate, the progressive withdrawal of British armed forces and the delineation of
boundaries between the two States and Jerusalem. Part I of the Plan stipulated that
10 the Mandate would be terminated as soon as possible and the United Kingdom
would withdraw no later than 1 August 1948. The new states would come into
existence two months after the withdrawal, but no later than 1 October 1948.
The Plan sought to address the conflicting objectives and claims of two competing
movements: Arab nationalism in Palestine and Jewish nationalism, known as
Zionism. The Plan also called for Economic Union between the proposed states, and
for the protection of religious and minority rights.
The Plan was accepted by the Jewish public, except for its fringes, and by the Jewish
Agency despite its perceived limitations. With a few exceptions, the Arab leaders and
governments rejected the plan of partition in the resolution and indicated an
unwillingness to accept any form of territorial division. Their reason was that it
violated the principles of national self-determination in the UN charter, which granted
people the right to decide their own destiny.
Immediately after adoption of the Resolution by the General Assembly, the civil war
broke out. The partition plan was not implemented.
Right of Return
A core Palestinian demand in peace negotiations is some kind of justice for these
refugees, most commonly in the form of the "right of return" to the homes their
families abandoned in 1948.
Israel can't accept the right of return without abandoning either its Jewish or
democratic identity. Adding 7 million Arabs to Israel's population would make Jews a
minority - Israel's total population is about 8 million, a number that includes the 1.5
million Arabs already there. So Israelis refuse to even consider including the right to
return in any final status deal.
One of the core problems in negotiations, then, is how to find a way to get justice for
the refugees that both the Israeli and Palestinian people can accept. Ideas proposed
so far include financial compensation and limited resettlement in Israel, but no two
leaders have ever agreed on the details of how these would work.
Solutions
One-State Solution
The one-state solution and the similar bi-national solution are proposed approaches
to resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict Proponents of a bi-national solution to the
conflict advocate a single state in Israel, the West Bank, and possibly the Gaza Strip,
with citizenship and equal rights in the combined entity for all inhabitants of all three
territories, without regard to ethnicity or religion. While some advocate this solution
for ideological reasons, others feel simply that, due to the reality on the ground, it is
the de facto situation.
Though increasingly debated in academic circles, this approach has remained
outside the range of official efforts to resolve the conflict as well as mainstream
analysis, where it is eclipsed by the two-state solution. The two-state solution was
most recently agreed upon in principle by the government of Israel and the
Palestinian Authority at the November 2007 Annapolis Conference and remains the
conceptual basis for negotiations proposed by the administration of U.S. President
Barack Obama in 2011. Interest in a one-state solution is growing.
11 Two-State Solution
The two-state solution refers to a solution of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict currently
under discussion, which calls for "two states for two peoples." The two-state solution
envisages an independent State of Palestine alongside the State of Israel, west of
the Jordan River.
The framework of the solution is set out in UN resolutions on the "Peaceful
settlement of the question of Palestine", going back to 1974. The resolution calls for
"two States, Israel and Palestine … side by side within secure and recognized
borders" together with "a just resolution of the refugee question in conformity with UN
resolution 194". The borders of the state of Palestine are "based on the pre-1967
borders". The latest resolution in November 2013 was passed 165 to 6, with 6
abstentions. The countries voting against were Canada, Israel, Federated States of
Micronesia, Marshall Islands, Palau and the United States.
The Palestinians have "shown serious interest" in a two-state solution since the mid1970s, and its mainstream leadership has embraced the concept since the 1982
Arab Summit in Fez. Over the years, polls have consistently shown "respectable
Israeli and Palestinian majorities in favor of a negotiated two-state settlement."
Agreeing on acceptable borders is a major difficulty with the two-state solution. There
have been many diplomatic efforts to realize a two state solution, starting from the
1991 Madrid Conference. There followed the 1993 Oslo accords and the failed 2000
Camp David summit followed by the Taba negotiations in early 2001. In 2002, the
Arab League proposed the Arab Peace Initiative. The latest initiative, which also
failed, was the 2013–14 peace talks.
Three-State Solution
The three-state solution, also called the Egyptian-Jordanian solution, and the JordanEgypt option, is an approach to peace in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict by giving
control of the West Bank to Jordan and control of the Gaza Strip to Egypt. The threestate solution essentially replicates the situation that existed between the 1949
Armistice Agreements and the 1967 Six-Day War. Beginning in 1949, Egypt
occupied the Gaza Strip, Jordan occupied the West Bank, and no Palestinian Arab
state existed. In 1950, Jordan officially annexed the West Bank and granted the Arab
residents Jordanian citizenship.
Land Swaps
The border between Israel and the West Bank would probably have to change in any
peace deal. There are about 500,000 Jewish settlers living in the West Bank, many
of whom live near the border with Israel proper. In a two-state deal, some of these
settlers would have to leave the West Bank while some border settlements would
become Israeli land. In exchange, Israel would give over some of its territory to
Palestine. These would be called "land swaps." No set of Israeli and Palestinian
leaders has agreed on precisely where to draw the border.
Resolutions Adopted
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-
12 fires. It also dispatched military observers, and deployed UN peacekeeping 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 recognized borders, by its resolution 1397 (2002), and endorsed the
Quartet's (UN, Russia, US and EU) Road Map by its resolution 1515 (2003). The
Council receives monthly briefings and holds periodic open debates on the issue. In
2011 President Mahmoud Abbas submitted the application of Palestine for UN
membership, currently before the Council.
•
The UN Security Council adopted United Nations Security Council Resolution
242 unanimously on November 22, 1967, in the aftermath of the Six-Day
War. It was adopted under Chapter VI of the UN Charter. The resolution was
sponsored by British ambassador Lord Caradon and was one of five drafts
under consideration.
Egypt, Jordan, Israel and Lebanon entered into consultations with the UN
Special representative over the implementation of 242. After denouncing it in
1967, Syria "conditionally" accepted the resolution in March 1972. Syria
formally acceptedUN Security Council Resolution 338, the cease-fire at the
end of the Yom Kippur War (in 1973), which embraced resolution 242.
On 1 May 1968, the Israeli ambassador to the UN expressed Israel's position
to the Security Council: "My government has indicated its acceptance of the
Security Council resolution for the promotion of agreement on the
establishment of a just and lasting peace. I am also authorized to reaffirm that
we are willing to seek agreement with each Arab State on all matters included
in that resolution."
In a statement to the General Assembly on 15 October 1968, the PLO
rejected Resolution 242, saying "the implementation of said resolution will
lead to the loss of every hope for the establishment of peace and security in
Palestine and the Middle East region." In September 1993, the PLO agreed
that Resolutions 242 and 338 should be the basis for negotiations with Israel
when it signed the Declaration of Principles. Resolution 242 is one of the
most widely affirmed resolutions on the Arab–Israeli conflict and formed the
basis for later negotiations between the parties. These led to Peace Treaties
between Israel and Egypt (1979) and Jordan (1994), as well as the 1993 and
1995 agreements with the Palestinians.
Resolution 242 (1967):
•
The three-line United Nations Security Council Resolution 338, adopted on
October 22, 1973, called for a ceasefire in the Yom Kippur War in accordance
with a joint proposal by the United States and the Soviet Union. The
resolution stipulated a ceasefire to take effect within 12 hours of the adoption
of the resolution. The "appropriate auspices" was interpreted to mean
American or Soviet rather than UN auspices. This third clause helped to
13 establish the framework for the Geneva Conference (1973) held in December
1973. The resolution was passed at the 1747th UNSC meeting by 14 votes to
none, with one member, the People's Republic of China, not participating in
the vote. The continued fighting despite the terms called for by the resolution,
brought Resolution 339 that resulted in a ceasefire.
Resolution 338 (1973):
• Selected resolutions related to the issue adopted by the Security Council can
be accessed through the following link:
Sources
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