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U.S. Vote Against Palestinian UN Resolution Fulfilled Pledge in Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty

(Institute for National Security Studies-Tel Aviv University) Oded Eran and Robbie Sabel - The submission of the draft resolution to the UN Security Council on behalf of the Palestinians was clearly a violation of the Palestinian undertaking under the Oslo agreement, in which Israel and the PLO agreed that "neither side shall initiate or take any step that will change the status of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip pending the outcome of the permanent status negotiations." The Jordanian draft spelled out in full the Palestinian position, leaving nearly nothing to be negotiated. The Jordanian draft proposed that the Arab refugee problem be resolved on the basis of UN General Assembly Resolution 194. When Resolution 194 was passed in December 1948, all the Arab states voted against it. In voting against the draft, the U.S. was not only expressing its political displeasure but was also fulfilling its obligation as part of the 1979 Egypt-Israel peace treaty, where the U.S. reaffirmed its commitment to "oppose and, if necessary, vote against any initiative in the Security Council to...change Resolutions 242 and 338 in ways which are incompatible with their original purpose." Amb. Oded Eran is a senior research fellow and former director of INSS. Amb. Robbie Sabel is Professor of International Law at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
2015-01-05 00:00:00
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