The new escalation of violence between Israelis and Palestinians after the unexpected attack by Hamas militias last Saturday has once again brought to the fore a conflict that has been going on for decades and that from time to time revives cyclical episodes of violence. The conflict is stagnant: The State of Israel is not willing to withdraw from the occupied territories; Quite the contrary, in recent years continues to increase its illegal settlements in Palestinian territory.
As explained last Monday Antonio GuterresSecretary General of the UN, this new wave of violence “does not arise from nothing, but born from a long-term conflictwith 56 years of occupation [por parte de Israel] and with no political end in sight.”
Israel has the solid support of the United States and no one seems to dare to put a stop to their abuses. The so-called international community remains silent, despite the fact that the United Nations (UN), especially the Security Council, has issued numerous resolutions in the last 75 years on the conflict in Palestine in which, for the most part, he not only condemns Israel, but demands that it rectify its policy towards the Palestinians and comply with the obligations imposed by the Geneva Convention on the occupying power.
The UN considers Palestine to be a territory occupied by Israel. and has long demanded that it withdraw from there, stop expanding illegal settlements and favor the creation of a Palestinian state.
However, Israel has systematically ignored most of these UN resolutions. At least the most important ones. They are not binding resolutions, but they imply a condemnation, even if it is moral. These are some of the most significant.
Not even the first of the resolutions, the 181, approved on November 29, 1947, has been fulfilled. This resolution divided the region into two states: one Arab and the other Jewish. To this day there is still no Palestinian state. The Jews were allocated 54% of the territory, even though they only represented 30% of the population of Palestine at the time. Jerusalem, a key city for both cultures, was granted international status.
Resolution 194approved in December 1948, establishes that Palestinian refugees who were expelled from their territories after the creation of the State of Israel in May of that year had – and still have – the right to return to their homes.
Another important resolution which has been ignored for Israel is the 242promoted by the UN in November 1967, six months after the Six-Day War. Resolution 242 demands the withdrawal of the Israeli army from the occupied territories.
Adopted by the Security Council on March 22, 1979, Resolution 446 declares illegal the creation of settlements by Israel in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967.
The resolution 478, August 1980, was a UN response to the Israeli Parliament’s approval of the Law of Jerusalem, which proclaimed the “whole and unified” city to be the capital of Israel. Through this resolution, the UN responded that the law approved by the Israeli Parliament was contrary to international law.
In December 1992, resolution 799 of the Security Council of The UN “strongly condemned Israel’s deportation of hundreds of Palestinian civilians” and demanded “the immediate and safe return of all deportees to the occupied territories.”
In March 2002, the green light was given to resolution 1397 of the Security Council. He supported “the concept of a region in which two states, Israel and Palestine, live side by side within secure borders and recognized.” It also demanded “the immediate cessation of all acts of violence, including all acts of terrorism, provocation, incitement and destruction.”
Seeing that none of the resolutions were heeded by Israel, the Security Council insisted again in November 2003 with resolution number 1515. In that text, the Security Council recalled the validity of all previous resolutions regarding the situation in the Middle East and, especially, resolutions 242, 338 and 1397.
Despite the reiteration of the message, Israel continues to ignore it. That’s why, resolution 2334 was adopted by the Security Council on December 23, 2016, to reaffirm that “the establishment of settlements by Israel in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem, has no legal validity” and to express a “serious concern that continued Israeli settlement activities They are endangering the viability of the two-state solution based on the 1967 borders.” Something that Israel is not going to do nor does it seem like it will ever do.
