Palestine in International Law

UN Security Council Resolution 242 & UN Security Council Resolution 338 Illegality of the Israeli occupation

UN General Assembly Resolution 194 – Right of return

List of UN resolutions on Palestine

UN resolutions unilaterally vetoed by the USA

International Court of Justice Advisory Opinion, 2004

Annual vote at the UN General Assembly, ‘Peaceful settlement of the question of Palestine’

In November 2009 the draft resolution on Peaceful Settlement was adopted by a recorded vote of 164 in favour to 7 against, with 4 abstentions, as follows:

In favour: Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Angola, Argentina, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Bulgaria, Burundi, Cambodia, Cape Verde, Chad, Chile, China, Colombia, Comoros, Costa Rica, Côte d’Ivoire, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Denmark, Djibouti, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Finland, France, Gabon, Gambia, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Latvia, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mexico, Monaco, Mongolia, Montenegro, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Republic of Korea, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Russian Federation, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, San Marino, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, Somalia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Swaziland, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Tajikistan, Thailand, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United Republic of Tanzania, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Viet Nam, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe.

Against: Australia, Israel, Marshall Islands, Micronesia (Federated States of), Nauru, Palau, United States.

Timeline – Palestine’s modern history

1917 The Balfour Declaration. The colonial British government decrees that Palestine will be a future homeland of the Jews.

1936 General strike in Palestine met with brutal supression by the British. Peel commission recommends partition of Palestine between Arabs and Jews.

1947 The British refer the ‘Palestine problem’ to the United Nations, which passes a resolution for the partition of Palestine. 55 per cent is given to the Jewish state.

1948 The state of Israel is declared. Expulsions and ethnic cleansing begins. When the British leave in May 1948 a third of the Palestinian population has already been evicted. The result is the first Arab-Israeli war, which lasts from May 1948 until January 1949.

1949 Armistice. Borders of the Israeli state extended to Armistice line, now known as the ‘67 borders. This gave 77% of historic Palestine to Israel.

1964 Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) is founded.

1967 The Six Day War. Israel occupies the Sinai Peninsula (belonging to Egypt), the West Bank (previously administered by Jordan) and the Golan Heights (belonging to Syria).

1979 The Camp David Accords. Egypt signs a peace treaty with Israel, the first Arab nation to do so. Israel withdraws from Sinai but continues its occupation of Gaza and the Golan Heights.

1982 Israel invades Lebanon under the command of Ariel Sharon with the aim of destroying the PLO. 14000 Lebanese and Palestinians killed and 20000 injured in 2 weeks. Between 3000 and 3500 Palestinians are massacred in the Sabra and Shatilla refugee camps, mainly the elderly, women and children. The PLO flees Lebanon, spreading across the Arab world.

1987/8 The first intifada begins in the West Bank and Gaza. The situation appears outside of the control of the PLO and the Islamic Resistence Movement (Hamas) begins to emerge.

1991 The PLO backs Saddam Hussein in the Gulf War, which results in the withdrawal of its support and funding by Arab governments.

1992 The PLO begins negotiations with Israel.

1994 The Oslo Peace Agreement is signed. The deal sees the PLO return to the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in the form of the Palestinian Authority. It is the first peace deal between the PLO and Israel. However, the agreement leaves all Final Status issues unresolved. These are:
- The return of Palestinian refugees from 1948 to their homes
- Where the borders of the Palestinian state will lie
- The status of Jerusalem
- The status of Israeli settlements on occupied land (Gaza and the West Bank)

1994 Israeli troops withdraw to the edges of major Palestinian population centres, replaced by the Palestinian police force.

1999 The deadline passes for resolution of Final Status issues. There has been no change in the political situation, only increased poverty in Palestinian areas and the massive growth of Israeli settlements, which have doubled in number between 1992 and 99.
There is increased tension and outbursts of violence between Israeli troops and Palestinians.

2000 Bill Clinton, nearing the last days of his presidency, calls a conference at Camp David. Negotiations break down and delegates return to the Middle East with tension increased still further.

2000 Ariel Sharon, responsible for massacres of Palestinians in Lebanon in 1982, visits the Dome of the Rock, Islam’s third holiest site. Sharon is surrounded by 1,000 Israeli Police officers.
The following day Palestinians begin protests in Israel, Gaza and the West Bank. The violence is triggered by Sharon’s visit to Dome of the Rock, but is ultimately the result of the frustration and anger at the lack of progress towards a political solution.
The Israeli military responds to the violence by shooting dead dozens of Palestinians during the ensuing months, with the final death toll during this outbreak of disturbances in the hundreds.

2001 Ariel Sharon is elected Israel’s Prime Minister, and the level of violence in the region is ratcheted up further. Palestinian bombs are matched by invasions of Palestinian cities by Israeli tanks, bombings by planes and raids by helicopter gun ships. The results for Palestinians are unparalleled poverty, mass unemployment and the placing of two million people under curfew.

2004 The International Court of Justice, the World’s highest and most highly respected Judicial body gives an Advisory Opinion on the Israeli wall in the West Bank. Approved by a vote of 14:1, the Court declares that:
The West Bank including East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip are occupied territories to which Israel have no title. The court states that it is inadmissable in international law to change borders by acquiring them in war
It is inadmissible under Article 49 of the fourth Geneva Convention for an occupying power to transfer its population to occupied territory, meaning that the Israeli settlements are a ‘flagrant violation of international law’
East Jerusalem is occupied Palestinian territory, acquired by Israel in the 1967 war
The International Court of Justice’s report obliges high contracting parties in the UN (such as the UK) to take measures to dismantle the wall. Although equal to the 1947 UN partition resolution in legal standing, the Palestinians and the International Community have so far failed to act upon the Court’s report.

2006 Hamas wins democratic elections, but are isolated by the US and EU. The EU withhold aid and Israel withhold tax revenue owed by them to the Palestinian Authority. Fatah continue to hold the Presidency. Conflict ensues, the result of which sees Hamas control Gaza and Fatah the West Bank.

2008 Israel’s blockade of Gaza continues, resulting in the effective end of Gaza’s export industry, and insufficient supply to Gaza of basic goods such as water, fuel, food and educational materials. Gazans tunnel to Egypt for the supply of food, clothes, medicine and weapons.
Israel’s West Bank settlements continue to expand, Israel confiscates occupied land, and freedom of movement is severely restricted by check points and the Israeli wall. Palestinians suffer a humanitarian crisis in which they are deprived of the most basic human rights.

November 2008 Israel breaks the ceasefire with Hamas and follows it with a well-planned three week assault on the Gaza Strip.