Taylor’s Lakeside Campus Model United Nations 2010| I Annual Session

Forum: Special Political and Decolonization Committee

Issue: The Question of a Palestinian State in the Middle East

Student Officer: Rick Harting and Oh Yea Ji

Position: Chair of SPECPOL

Introduction

For the past half century, the Palestinian State has been in the centre of Middle
Eastern conflicts; the ongoing conflict of the division of former British mandate of Palestine
and the creation of the state of Israel. Starting with the conflicts based on religious
backgrounds, it has developed later into “Jewish-Arab Conflict over the Land of Palestine”,
followed by most recent “Israeli-Palestinian Conflict”.

Background

(1) Zionism
In the 1800s a group called Zionists in Europe (representing an extremist minority of
Jewish population) decided to colonize this land to create a Jewish homeland. As
the number of Zionist immigrants increased in Palestine, a conflict broke out.

(2) UN Partition Plan

In the 1947 the United Nations decided to intervene with this accelerating conflict.
But instead of the principle of “self-determination of peoples”, UN chose the strategy
of outside power dividing up other people’s land. With Zionist pressure, UN gave
55% of Palestine to a Jewish state (who initially owned under 7% of land and only
represented 30% of the population).

(3) 1947-1949 War

The Civil War in
Palestine had
gone on for five
and a half month,
between the Jews
of Palestine and
the Arabs of
Palestine. At the
end, it was a
“decisive victory”
of the Jewish side
which was then
followed by the
1948 Arab-Israeli War. The newly declared State of Israel fought with its Arab
neighbours from Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. By the end of the war,
approximately 725 000 Palestinian Arabs fled or were expelled from their homes
(known as 1948 Palestinian exodus). The new Israeli government refused to
 Taylor’s Lakeside Campus Model United Nations 2010| I Annual Session

recognize existence of the Palestinian population.

(4) 1967 War & USS Liberty

During the Six-Day War in 1967, Israel launched a surprise attack on Egypt,
occupying the territories (the West Bank and Gaza Strip) populated by Palestinians
from Jordan and Egypt. During this war Israel also attacked a US Navy Ship (USS
Liberty). This had left Egypt, Soviet Union, Jordan and PLO (Palestinine Liberation
Organisation) as an ally especially during the War of Attrition (July 1967 – August
1970).

(5) 1970 – 1993/ 1993 - 2005

This is the period between the Six-Day War and the Oslo Accords. The Oslo
Accords was the first face-to-face agreement between the Israel and the PLO.
According to this, the West Bank and Gaza were supposed to become a Palestinian
state. But as the Israel continued to confiscate land, the Palestinian population
began to rebel at the end of September 2000 (the uprising which was called
“Intifada”). In 2005, Israel forces withdrew from the Gaza Strip and four settlements
in the northern West Bank (Israel’s unilateral disengagement plan).

Questions to Consider

Even after the Israeli disengagement plan in 2005, the pressures conflicts between various
political and religious groups, resulting in both economic and humanitarian concerns.
These are some questions to consider when looking for possible solutions.

(1) Jerusalem – an important setting for religious & historical narratives

 Should city be left “unified” within Israel’s political control?
 Should Palestinians be allowed to claim at least the parts of the city which were
not part of Israel prior to June 1067?

(2) Palestinian refugees of the 1948 war

 Definition of Palestinian refugee – should it remain as “a person whose normal
place of residence was Palestine between June 1946 and May 1948 and who
lost both their homes and means of livelihodd as a result of the 1948 Arab-Israeli
conflict”?
 Should the descendants of these orginal Palestinian Refugees be eligible for
registration and UNRWA services? Do they have the “right to return” although
they were born outside of Israel?

(3) Israeli settlements in the West Bank

 Are the Israeli settlements in the West Bank illegal?
 Should they be disengaged, following the pattern from 2005 Disengagement
Plan in the Gaza Strip?

(4) Israeli security concerns

 Should there be a measure against Palestinian organizations’ political violence or
can they be justified?
 How should Israel react and deal with the country’s security concerns? Military
action? Diplomacy? Or simply increased security measures?
 Taylor’s Lakeside Campus Model United Nations 2010| I Annual Session

(5) International Status

 Does Israel have right to demand control over border crossings between the
Palestinian territories, Jordan and Egypt?
 How much economic control (e.g setting import and export controls) does Israel
have over these areas?

(6) Airspace & Palestinian army

 Should there be a joint control over the combined airspace above the West Bank
and Gaza as well as that above Israel itself? Or should it be a complete Israeli
control?
 Should Palestinians be allowed to build up an army capable of offensive
operations? How much military be allowed for “defensive” purposes?

(7) Recent events

 Should the “freeze” (the restriction of settlement homes in the West Bank ordered
by the Israeli government) be applied to all places? (Including places such as
municipal buildings, schools, synagogues, other community infrastructures and
Jerusalem?)
 What actions should US government, the Europian Union, Russia and the UN
take regarding suspended peace talks?

BIBLIOGRAPHY/ FURTHER READING

To find out more about Israeli-Palestinian conflict

http://www.mideastweb.org/briefhistory.htm
http://www.ifamericansknew.org
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/country_profiles/803257.stm#facts
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli%E2%80%93Palestinian_conflict

States of Palestinian refugees & human rights

http://refugees.resist.ca/document/englisdoc.htm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIEDq52550U

Useful websites for researching recent events

http://www.bbcnews.co.uk
http://www.guardian.co.uk