Israeli settlements or colonies are civilian communities where Israeli citizens live, almost exclusively of Jewish identity or ethnicity, built on lands occupied by Israel since the Six-Day War in 1967. The international community considers Israeli settlements to be illegal under international law, though Israel disputes this.
Temporary International Presence in Hebron or TIPH was a civilian observer mission in the West Bank city of Hebron established in 1994. Both the Israeli Government and Palestinian Authority called for its creation. It “monitor[ed] the situation in Hebron and record[ed] breaches of international humanitarian law, the agreements on Hebron between Israel and the Palestinian authority and human rights, in accordance with internationally recognized standards". It also monitored Israeli settlers, and aimed to help the Arab Palestinians who currently live there. It was staffed by personnel from Italy, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and Turkey.
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.
United Nations Security Council resolution 446, adopted on 22 March 1979, concerned the issue of Israeli settlements in the "Arab territories occupied by Israel since 1967, including Jerusalem". This refers to the Palestinian territories of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip as well as the Syrian Golan Heights.
The Cave of the Patriarchs massacre, also known as the Ibrahimi Mosque massacre or the Hebron massacre, was a shooting massacre carried out by Baruch Goldstein, an American-Israeli physician and extremist of the far-right ultra-Zionist Kach movement. On 25 February 1994, during the Jewish holiday of Purim, which had overlapped in that year with the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, Goldstein opened fire with an assault rifle on a large gathering of Palestinian Muslims praying in the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron. He killed 29 people, several as young as 12 years, and wounded 125. Goldstein was overpowered and beaten to death by survivors.
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.
United Nations Security Council resolution 521, adopted unanimously on 19 September 1982, after condemning the massacre of Palestinians in Beirut, Lebanon, by the Lebanese Forces militia group, the Council reaffirmed resolutions 512 (1982) and 513 (1982) which called for respect for the rights of the civilian population without any discrimination and repudiates all acts of violence against that population.
In United Nations Security Council resolution 1322, adopted on 7 October 2000, after recalling resolutions 476 (1980), 478 (1980), 672 (1990) and 1073 (1996), the Council deplored the visit by Ariel Sharon to the Temple Mount and the subsequent violence which, according to the Resolution, had resulted in the deaths of over 80 Palestinians. The Resolution did not condemn or mention reported Israeli deaths, although it did deplore what it described as "many other casualties."
United Nations Security Council resolution 605, adopted on 22 December 1987, after hearing from a representative from South Yemen and recalling the Geneva Conventions and Security Council resolutions 446 (1979), 465 (1980), 497 (1981) and 592 (1986), the Council condemned Israel for violating the human rights of the Palestinian people and in particular the opening of fire and killing of students in the first few weeks of the First Intifada.
The international community considers the establishment of Israeli settlements in the Israeli-occupied territories illegal on one of two bases: that they are in violation of Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, or that they are in breach of international declarations. The United Nations Security Council, the United Nations General Assembly, the International Committee of the Red Cross, the International Court of Justice and the High Contracting Parties to the Convention have all affirmed that the Fourth Geneva Convention applies to the Israeli-occupied territories.
United Nations Security Council resolution 636, adopted on 6 July 1989, after reaffirming resolutions 608 (1988) and 609 (1988) and learning of the deportation of eight Palestinians by Israel in the occupied territories on 29 June 1989, the council condemned the continued deportations and reaffirmed the applicability of the Fourth Geneva Convention referring to the protection of civilians in times of war.
United Nations Security Council resolution 636, adopted on 30 August 1989, after reaffirming resolutions 608 (1988), 636 (1989) and learning of the deportation of five Palestinians by Israel in the occupied territories on 27 August 1989, the Council condemned the continued deportations and reaffirmed the applicability of the Fourth Geneva Convention referring to the protection of civilians in times of war.
United Nations Security Council resolution 1341, adopted unanimously on 22 February 2001, after recalling resolutions 1234 (1999), 1258 (1999), 1265 (1999), 1273 (1999), 1279 (1999), 1291 (2000), 1296 (2000), 1304 (2000), 1323 (2000) and 1332 (2000) on situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Council demanded that all parties to the conflict in the country implement disengagement plans and adopt withdrawal plans for foreign troops by 15 May 2001.
United Nations Security Council resolution 1544, adopted on 19 May 2004, after recalling resolutions 242 (1967), 338 (1973), 446 (1979), 1322 (2000), 1397 (2002), 1402 (2002), 1403 (2002), 1405 (2002), 1435 (2002) and 1515 (2003), the Council called on Israel to cease demolishing Palestinian homes.
United Nations Security Council resolution 1615, adopted unanimously on 29 July 2005, after reaffirming all resolutions on Abkhazia and Georgia, particularly Resolution 1582 (2005), the council extended the mandate of the United Nations Observer Mission in Georgia (UNOMIG) until 31 January 2006.
Palestinians are the target of violence by Israeli settlers and their supporters, predominantly in the West Bank. In November 2021, Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz discussed the steep rise in the number of incidents between settlers and Palestinians in the West Bank, many of which result from attacks by residents of illegal settler outposts on Palestinians from neighboring villages. Settler violence also includes acts known as price tag attacks that are in response to actions by the Israeli government, usually against Palestinian targets and occasionally against Israeli security forces in the West Bank.
United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334 was adopted on 23 December 2016. It concerns the Israeli settlements in "Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem". The resolution passed in a 14–0 vote by members of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). Four members with United Nations Security Council veto power voted for the resolution, while the United States abstained.
United Nations General Assembly Resolution ES-10/20 is a resolution of the Tenth emergency special session of the United Nations General Assembly criticizing the Israeli response to the 2018 Gaza border protests. The resolution was sponsored by Algeria, Turkey and the State of Palestine passed with 120 voting in favour, 8 against, and 45 abstentions.
