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OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 10/9/2014, SPi

The Crooked Course xxxvii

Many of the political battles related to the Arab–Israeli conflict have been fought in the halls of the United Nations. On 29 November 1947, the UN General Assembly voted Resolution 181, also known as the Partition Plan. It called for the creation of two states—one Palestinian and one Jewish.

Other key UN Resolutions include General Assembly Resolution 194 (1948), which calls for the return of Palestinian refugees; General Assembly Resolution 303 (1949), which designates Jerusalem to be placed under UN jurisdiction; and, most famously, Security Council Resolution 242 (1967), which calls on Israel to withdraw from all territory seized during the Six Day War of 1967.

Paradoxically, some of the Resolutions are seen by both parties as supporting their side of the argument. For example, in Resolution 242 the interpretation of the clause calling for “withdrawal of Israel armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict” has been controversially ambiguous, and the object of widely different interpretations. The key argument relates to whether the clause requires Israel to withdraw from all territory occupied in the 1967 war, or only from some parts of the territory captured. While many Resolutions have had hardly any effect, they nevertheless continue to be used as points of reference in the different attempts to resolve the conflict.

ON PART IV: REGIONAL DOCUMENTS

The Israeli–Palestinian issue cannot be seen in isolation: it affects and has been affected by broader regional dynamics and conflicts for a century. After years of colonial competition, France and the United Kingdom drew lines in the sand through the Sykes–Picot Agreement of 1916. This agreement divided the region into spheres of influence, and eventually led to the creation of new countries. In the subsequent thirty years, several programmatic initiatives were taken in the context of multiple anti-colonial campaigns for national self-determination and political sovereignty, including the quest of the Jewish people for a national homeland.

The 1948 war between Arab countries and the newly founded State of Israel resulted in the latter significantly expanding its territory beyond that allotted to it by the UN Partition Plan. This marked the beginning of more than half a century of Israeli–Arab tensions and conflicts. Gradually the focus moved from the legitimacy of the state of Israel to the country’s territorial boundaries. This coincided with broadening support, not only internationally but also in Israel, for the establishment of a Palestinian state living peacefully, side by side, with the state of Israel, within mutually secured borders.

Obtaining the regional buy-in to peace with Israel began with the different armistice agreements signed in the wake of the 1948 war. While these agreements ended the war, the fighting continued to flare up as the armistice lines established were not internationally recognized borders.

The Arab–Israeli conflict came to a new head with the Six Day War in June 1967, when Israel conquered the Sinai Peninsula and the Gaza Strip from Egypt, the West Bank and East Jerusalem from Jordan, and the Golan Heights from Syria. In the aftermath, Arab nations unified their position against Israel with the Arab League

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