Wednesday, October 22, 2003

ISRAEL

Guardian: Key UN resolutions on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

On the day Israel announced it would defy the UN over its security fence, Simon Jeffery reviews the world body's key resolutions on the Middle East

Both the United Nations general assembly and its 15-member security council, the body with the primary responsibility for maintaining international peace and security, have passed resolutions relating to the division of the former British mandate of Palestine and the subsequent Arab-Israeli conflict since the 1947. The security council has alone passed over 200.
Unlike that body, the general assembly does not have the power to make its resolutions legally binding under the UN charter. However, it is an important indicator of international opinion and today called on Israel to dismantle its West Bank "security fence". Its other notable resolutions include the following:

181

The 1947 resolution that endorsed the partition plan for Palestine.

3379

Passed in 1975, resolution 3379 stated that Zionism to be a form of racism and racial discrimination. This has remained a controversial topic, and its resurgence at the UN 2001 anti-racism summit in South Africa saw both Israel and the US walk out.

The security council's resolutions deal with the day-to-day and year-to-year episodes in the conflict. Though not explicitly legally-binding as those issued under chapter seven of the charter (which include the 1950 and 1991 resolutions ahead of the Korean and Gulf wars), they have consistently called for actions to bring peace forward. They include:

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