DUBAI (AlArabiya.net)
Below is a snapshot of relations between the Jewish state and the world body over the three decades until 2005:
1974 - Yasser Arafat, leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization, which was then sworn to destroying Israel, receives standing ovation at U.N. General Assembly.
1975 - General Assembly passes resolution equating Zionism with racism, prompting Israel's then-ambassador Chaim Herzog to tear up the resolution on the U.N. podium. Resolution rescinded in 1991.
2001 - Crisis between Israel and United Nations after information emerges that U.N. peacekeepers monitoring Lebanon border had suppressed video tapes of three soldiers being abducted by Hezbollah guerrillas in 2000, as well of as of blood stains found in a getaway car and some of their equipment.
2002 - Israel stops all high-level meetings with U.N. Middle East envoy Terje Roed-Larsen after he harshly criticizes army for causing "colossal suffering" in fighting with militants in the Jenin refugee camp. A U.N. inquiry later dismisses Palestinian allegations that Israel had committed a massacre in the camp, but accuses army of grossly violating human rights.
2003 - General Assembly issues 18 resolutions condemning Israel for human rights violations compared to four resolutions for other countries. Israel says this figure highlights power of the pro-Palestinian Arab and Muslim bloc in pushing through anti-Israeli resolutions in the General Assembly. Israel's closest ally, the United States, often vetoes resolutions critical of Israel in U.N. Security Council.
February 2004 - General Assembly asks its highest court, the World Court, to issue advisory opinion on Israel's West Bank barrier. Israel says barrier is security bulwark against suicide bombers reaching its cities, while Palestinians call it a grab for occupied land to deny them a viable state.
July 2004 - World Court declares barrier illegal and demands Israel removes it and compensates Palestinians. General Assembly then votes 150-6 with 10 abstentions in favor of tearing down barrier.
Oct. 2004 - Israel accuses U.N. relief agency UNRWA of assisting Palestinian militants but later backs away from the claim.
Jan. 2005 - General Assembly marks its first ever commemoration of the liberation of Nazi concentration camps.
June 2005 - Israel's U.N. ambassador is chosen as one of 21 vice presidents of General Assembly, the first time in 53 years the Jewish state has held the post.
Aug. 2005 - Israel faults as "mundane" a report to the Security Council on its Gaza withdrawal by U.N. undersecretary-general Ibrahim Gambari. The pull-out, however, receives warm praise from Secretary-General Kofi Annan. |
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Key Resolutions * U.N. General Assembly Resolution 181 (1947), which created Israel, called for a two-state solution in the region, slating 14,900 square km of land for a Jewish state and 11,500 square km of land for an "Arab state." Jerusalem would be run by the U.N. as an internationalized city.
* U.N. General Assembly Resolution 194 (1948) said Palestinian refugees are entitled to return to their homeland.
* U.N. Security Council resolutions 242 and 338 (1967 and 1973) called for the "withdrawal of Israeli armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflicts" and a ceasefire to the Yom Kippur war. Interpreted commonly today as calling for the "land for peace" principle.
* U.N. Security Council Resolution 1515 (2003) endorsed the Middle East Quartet’s Road Map towards a permanent, two-State solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The overwhelming majority of U.N. member states condemns Israel's occupation and calls for it to be ended on the basis of U.N. Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338. |
