Gaza: The UN and the two-state solution, Israeli and Palestinian, a story more than 75 years old

On November 29, 1947, the UN General Assembly adopted Resolution 181 on the partition of Palestine, then under British mandate, and the creation of two states, one Jewish and one Arab, with Jerusalem having international status. The Arab states and the Palestinians opposed it. The Zionist movement accepted it.

On May 14, 1948, the State of Israel was proclaimed. Arab armies entered into war against this new state, which won a crushing victory in 1949.

More than 760,000 Palestinians were forced into exile: this was the "Nakba" ("catastrophe"), officially commemorated for the first time at the UN in May 2023.

In 1967, Security Council Resolution 242 laid the foundations for a just and lasting peace, but introduced ambiguity between the different language versions. For example, it called for the "withdrawal" of Israeli armed forces "from" the Occupied Territories (English version) or "from" the Occupied Territories (French version) during the recent conflict.

On November 13, 1974, Yasser Arafat, leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), founded ten years earlier, delivered his first speech at the UN rostrum, where he appeared carrying an olive branch and a pistol. A few days later, on the 22nd, the General Assembly recognized the Palestinians' right to self-determination and independence and granted observer status to the PLO.

The Oslo process, without the UN

The main step toward peace did not come from the UN. In 1993, Israel and the PLO, which had proclaimed the "independent Palestinian state" in 1988, concluded secret negotiations in Oslo and then signed a declaration of principles on Palestinian autonomy in Washington. In 1994, Yasser Arafat returned to the Palestinian Territories after 27 years of exile and established the Palestinian Authority.

The Security Council's decisions on the Palestinian issue are largely dependent on the American position.

Since 1970, the United States has used its veto nearly 40 times to protect its Israeli ally. But it sometimes allows key resolutions to pass. Thus, on March 12, 2002, at the initiative of the United States, the Council adopted Resolution 1397, the first to mention a Palestinian "state" existing alongside Israel within secure and recognized borders.

In December 2016, for the first time since 1979, the Council called on Israel to cease settlement activity in the Palestinian territories. This adoption was made possible by the American abstention, just weeks before the end of President Barack Obama's term.

Since the Hamas attack of October 7, 2023, and the Israeli reprisals in Gaza, the United States has multiplied its vetoes, with a few exceptions.

In 2011, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas initiated the process of applying for "membership of the State of Palestine in the United Nations," which required a positive recommendation from the Security Council and then a favorable vote from the General Assembly. Faced with opposition from the United States, the process was halted before a vote in the Council could even take place. The following year, the General Assembly granted the Palestinians a lower status of "non-member observer state."

In April 2024, the Palestinians re-launched their bid to become a full member state, but the United States vetoed it.

Had the Palestinian request passed the Security Council hurdle, it would have had every chance of being approved by the necessary two-thirds majority in the Assembly. At least 142 of the 193 UN member states unilaterally recognize a Palestinian state.