United Nations Security Council Resolution 242 (S/RES/242) was adopted unanimously by the UN Security Council 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.
The United Nations Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO) is an organization founded on 29 May 1948 for peacekeeping in the Middle East. Established amidst the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, its primary task was initially to provide the military command structure to the peacekeeping forces in the Middle East to enable the peacekeepers to observe and maintain the ceasefire, and in assisting the parties to the Armistice Agreements in the supervision of the application and observance of the terms of those Agreements. The organization's structure and role has evolved over time as a result of the various conflicts in the region and at times UNTSO personnel have been used to rapidly deploy to other areas of the Middle East in support of other United Nations operations. The command structure of the UNTSO was maintained to cover the later peacekeeping organisations of the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) and the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) to which UNTSO continues to provide military observers.
The 1949 Armistice Agreements were signed between Israel and Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, and Syria. They formally ended the hostilities of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War and also demarcated the Green Line, which separated Arab-controlled territory from Israel until the latter's victory in the 1967 Arab–Israeli War.
Issues relating to the State of Israel and aspects of the Arab–Israeli conflict, and more recently the Iran–Israel conflict, occupy repeated annual debate times, resolutions and resources at the United Nations. Since its founding in 1948, the United Nations Security Council, has adopted 79 resolutions directly related to the Arab–Israeli conflict as of January 2010.
The occupation of the Gaza Strip by the United Arab Republic began in 1959 following the dissolution of the All-Palestine Protectorate, which had ruled the Gaza Strip as a client state of Egypt since the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, and its merger with the United Arab Republic.
The international law bearing on issues of Arab–Israeli conflict, which became a major arena of regional and international tension since the birth of Israel in 1948, resulting in several disputes between a number of Arab countries and Israel.
The Green Line, or 1949 Armistice border, is the demarcation line set out in the 1949 Armistice Agreements between the armies of Israel and those of its neighbors after the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. It served as the de facto borders of the State of Israel from 1949 until the Six-Day War in 1967, and continues to represent Israel's internationally recognized borders with the two Palestinian territories: the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
United Nations Security Council Resolution 93, adopted on May 18, 1951, after hearing a report from the Chief of Staff of the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization in Palestine, the representatives of Egypt and Israel as well as a determination by the Egyptian-Israel Mixed Armistice Commission that determined that a “prearranged and planned attack ordered by Israel authorities” was “committed by Israel regular army forces against the Egyptian regular army” in the Gaza Strip on February 28, 1951. The Council condemned this attack as a violation of the cease-fire previsions of UNSC Resolution 54 and as inconsistent with the obligations of the parties under the General Armistice Agreement between Egypt and Israel and under the United Nations Charter. The Council again called upon Israel to take all necessary measures to prevent such actions and expressed its conviction that the maintenance of the General Armistice Agreement is threatened by any deliberate violation of it and that no progress towards the return of peace in Palestine can be made until both parties comply strictly with their obligations.
The 1966 attack on Samu, codenamed by Israel as Operation Shredder, was a large cross-border assault on 13 November 1966 by the Israeli military on the Jordanian-controlled West Bank village of Samu. It was the largest Israeli military operation since the 1956 Suez Crisis and is considered to have been a contributing factor to the outbreak of the Six-Day War in 1967.
United Nations Security Council Resolution 107 was a Security Council resolution adopted unanimously on March 30, 1955, calling upon the Egyptian and Israeli governments to cooperate with the proposals outlined in a report previously issued by the chief of staff of the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization in Palestine.
United Nations Security Council Resolution 111, adopted unanimously on January 19, 1956, noted that according to the Chief of Staff of the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization in Palestine, Israel was in direct violation of the General Armistice Agreement and that there was interference by the Syrian Authorities with Israeli activities on Lake Tiberias. The Council held that this interference in no way justified Israel’s actions and condemned her for them.
The modern borders of Israel exist as the result both of past wars and of diplomatic agreements between the State of Israel and its neighbours, as well as an effect of the agreements among colonial powers ruling in the region before Israel's creation. Only two of Israel's five total potential land borders are internationally recognized and uncontested, while the other three remain disputed; the majority of its border disputes are rooted in territorial changes that came about as a result of the 1967 Arab–Israeli War, which saw Israel occupy large swathes of territory from its rivals. Israel's two formally recognized and confirmed borders exist with Egypt and Jordan since the 1979 Egypt–Israel peace treaty and the 1994 Israel–Jordan peace treaty, while its borders with Syria, Lebanon and the Palestinian territories remain internationally defined as contested.
Issues relating to the State of Palestine and aspects of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict occupy continuous debates, resolutions, and resources at the United Nations. Since its founding in 1948, the United Nations Security Council, as of January 2010, has adopted 79 resolutions directly related to the Arab–Israeli conflict.
The Mixed Armistice Commissions (MAC) is an organisation for monitoring the ceasefire along the lines set by the General Armistice Agreements. It was composed of United Nations Military Observers and was part of the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization peacekeeping force in the Middle East. The MAC comprised on four sections to monitor each of the four truce agreements, the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan/Israel MAC, the Israel/Syrian MAC, the Israel/Lebanon MAC and the Egypt/Israel MAC. The various MACs were located on the cease fire lines and, through close liaison with headquarters in Jerusalem, were charged with supervising the truce, investigating border incidents, and taking remedial action to prevent the recurrence of such incidents.
Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan/Israel Mixed Armistice Commission was the United Nations organisation of observers which dealt with complaints from Jordan and Israel to maintain the fragile cease fire along the demarcation line between Israel and Jordan. At the closing of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, on 3 April 1949, the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan signed a truce with Israel called the 1949 Armistice Agreements. The United Nations Truce Supervision Organization posted Military Observers as part of the Mixed Armistice Commissions (MACs) to observe the truce on the cease fire line and to liaise with the Israeli and Jordanian local area commanders. While the 1948 war was concluded with the 1949 Armistice Agreements it has not marked the end of the Arab–Israeli conflict. The HKJ/IMAC was the organisation which monitored the Jordan/Israel truce agreement, the HJK/IMAC Headquarters was located in Jerusalem close to the Green Line and, through close liaison with the UNTSO headquarters in Government House, Jerusalem, was charged with supervising the truce, investigating border incidents, and taking remedial action to prevent the recurrence of such incidents along the Jordan/Israel Green Line.
The Israel–Syria Mixed Armistice Commission (ISMAC) was the United Nations commission for observing the armistice between Israel and Syria after the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, as part of the Mixed Armistice Commissions (MAC). The fourth and last truce agreement, the 1949 armistice agreement, was signed between Israel and Syria on 20 July 1949 on Hill 232 near Mahanayim, ending the formal conflict in the former Mandatory Palestine. The Israeli side was represented by Lieutenant Colonel Mordechai Maklef, Yehoshua Penman and Shabtai Rosenne, while the Syrian side was represented by Colonel Fawzi Selo, Lieutenant Colonel Mohamed Nasser and Captain Afif Sizri. While the armistice agreements with Syria concluded the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, they did not mark the end of the Arab–Israeli conflict.
The first emergency special session of the United Nations General Assembly was convened on 1 November and ended on 10 November 1956 resolving the Suez Crisis by creating the United Nations Emergency Force (UNEF) to provide an international presence between the belligerents in the canal zone. The First Emergency Special Session was convened due to the failure of the Security Council to resolve the instability at the Suez Canal. This forced an invocation of the "Uniting for Peace" resolution, which transferred the issue from the Security Council to the General Assembly in its Emergency Special Session (ESS) guise. On the fourth day of the ESS the Canadian representative, Lester B. Pearson, introduced the concept of a UN police force. The creation of the United Nations Emergency Force was approved by the General Assembly with 57 supports and zero opposes. The vote had 19 countries abstaining, including the United Kingdom, France, Egypt, the Soviet Union and several Eastern European countries.
The John Kerry Parameters are a declaration of principles that seeks to serve as a framework for a final resolution to the long-standing Israeli–Palestinian conflict. They were proposed by US Secretary of State John Kerry on December 28, 2016, following the UN Security Council's approval of Resolution 2334, in which the United States refrained from using its veto. The plan includes the existence of two Israeli and Palestinian states side by side, with Jerusalem as the capital of both countries, an end to the occupation while fulfilling Israel's security needs, and a viable, demilitarized Palestinian state.
