Topic A: Security and Disarmament Terms for the Recognition of the Palestine Territories as a State

Overview: Self-determination is a basic right in the international law. One of the main purposes of the United Nations is to guarantee pacific relationships between states. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights states that All peoples have the right of self-determination. By virtue of that right they are free to determine their political status and pursue their economic, social and cultural development. As the Palestinian people have a different culture from Israel, they should have the previous right guaranteed, but the historic and religious background of both nations increase the complexity of that statement. The recognition of the Palestine territories as a state has been a discussed topic since the second half of the 20th century. Their geographic position, the presence of several religions and the cultural differences make it harder to reach a solution to this topic. The city of Jerusalem, home of three of the most extended religions is today under the control of two different administrations (The Palestinian and the Israeli) and each of them does not recognize their counterpart. The tension between both governments is present since the creation of the Israeli State, and there have been military interventions from different countries. Palestine hasnt yet been recognized by the UN as a state member, even though most of its members do. The objectives of the Disarmament and International Security Committee is to supervise the security and disarmament terms in the resolution of this conflict.

Historic Background: For centuries there was no such religious and cultural conflict. In the 19 th century the land that nowadays is Israel and the Palestine Territories was inhabited by a multicultural population of Muslims (86%), Christians (10%) and Jews (4%), all of them living generally in peace. By the late 1800s, immigrants from Europe established on those lands with the meanings of colonizing the Palestine territories. They were conformed mainly of an extremist Jewish population, looking to create a Jewish homeland, as the Jewish nation didnt have a country, and was propagated all over the world. They were known as Zionists, and their immigration created no problems in the first years. The Muslim population became aware of the situation when the Zionist population began to grow up. The cultural conflicts started to appear, reaching a point where waves of violence began to come out. In the year 1933, after Germany adopted the anti-Semitism politics, thousands of Jewish people migrated from central Europe to the Palestine territories as war refugees. The increasing number of Jewish population, combined with the Zionist activities in the area, increased the tension within the conflict. After the Second World War I, trying to overpass the Jewish holocaust, in 1947 the United Nations decided to intervene in the conflict between the Palestinians and the Jewish. The principle of self determination of peoples was not considered in such inte rvention, and a reorganization of the power of the land took place. The UN recommended giving away 55% of Palestine to create a Jewish state. By this year, the Jewish population represented the 30% of habitants of those lands, and was located inside a 7% of the total of the Palestine territories. This measure displaced a huge percentage of the Muslims from their lands, and Israel was created.

From both sides, terrorist groups began to arise. The Israeli terrorist groups were against of the presence of Muslims inside their territories. There were 16 massacres before 1947, where women, men and children were killed. The Palestinian terrorist groups were one of the first responses against the Israeli presence. As a result of the loss of lands by the Palestinian people and the massacres against Muslims, in in 1947 various Muslim states declared war against Israel. The war took place along the Israeli border. Israel was attacked from the north by Lebanon and Syria, from the east by Iraq and Jordan, and from the south by Egypt and Sudan. Some Palestinian rebels fought inside Israel, but in general, the Palestinian people were the victims, as most of their properties were lost and the battles were fought outside Israel, in the Palestinian lands. Even though many countries entered the war in support of the Muslim population, the Zionist forces outnumbered the other armies by a factor of three to two. In 1949, the Arab countries involved in the war signed armistice treaties with Israel. The war ended, and the Palestine territories were reduced a 78%. Israel grew, and most of the cities within their territories were changed in name, based on the Hebrew culture. 750,000 Palestinians had been made refugees. In 1967, Israel (rather than wait to be attacked) launched a hugely successful military campaign against its perceived enemies. The air forces of Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Iraq were all but destroyed on June 5th. The remaining 22% of the Palestine land was occupied by Israeli forces. The West Bank and the Gaza Strip werent acquired by Israel because of the international laws, but they were occupied by their forces. In the year 1964, the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization) was created with the objective of creating an independent Palestinian state, and this organization was considered as a government by several nations in the first years, and served to the United Nations as the representative body of the Palestinian people. This organization was considered as a terrorist

group by the United States and Israel until 1991, when the PLO recognized the right of existence of Israel. In the search of stability, in 1993 the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Israeli government signed a series of accords in Oslo, Norway. These accords stated that Israel had to liberate the occupied territories, and the Palestinian Liberation Organization had to stabilize the territories with democracy to bring peace. With the time, this document lost reliability as the conflict continued. Israel continued the confiscation of private property in the Gaza Strip, and the presence of Palestinian terrorist groups arose.

Current situation: Israel does not recognize the sovereignty of the Palestine National Authority (a subdivision of the PLO resulting from the OSLO accords), and there is an embargo line surrounding the Gaza Strip. There is lack of services inside the Palestine Territories, and there are demands from the Palestine people for self-determination. Since 2006, in the Palestinian legislative elections, a political party named Hamas gained power over Fatah (a political party that supported the pacific negotiations) and they are against the previously signed accords. Since then Hamas militia has attacked Israel with the use of homemade missiles and terrorist attacks. The Palestinian National Authority did not support these actions and therefore the power in Palestine is actually on the hands of two mayor groups, the Palestinian National Authority, and the Hamas political party. As a response of these attacks, Israel closed negotiations with the Palestinian National Authority, even though this organization is in favor of creating diplomatic relationships with Israel with the goal of creating a pacific Palestine state.

The Palestine government is not recognized by the following state members of the security committee: 1) United States 2) Australia 3) Luxembourg

Actions taken by the United Nations: The Palestinian government is recognized by 132 state members of the United Nations, but the United Stated have used their right to veto against the recognition of Palestine as a member state. Currently, Palestine is considered as a non-member observer state by the United Nations, since 29 November 2012.

Topic B: International intervention in civil wars

Overview: One of the mayor issues that the United Nations, and especially the Disarmament and International Security Committee, have to deal with, is whether a nation can intervene in a local civil war. A civil war is an armed conflict between organized groups of citizens (may include the government) of the same country or state. In most of the cases a civil war is aimed to a reform or a change in power, meaning that the conflict may involve a revisionist group against a status quo group (against change). The causes of a civil war can be different from case to case, but in most of the times, social inequality and human rights violations are present when a conflict of this kind occurs. An international intervention is when a state uses their military and economic forces in the internal or external affairs of a sovereign country. The state members of the Security Committee and the Disarmament and International Security Committee of the United Nations, when dealing with this kind of situation, have the obligation of analyzing the situation and making decisions that look for the general well-being and human rights of the populations of all the nations that are going to be involved. In matters of international law, an intervention may be unlawful or lawful based on the criteria of the international treaties that a nation has, and the International Law documents themselves. Nowadays, there are civil wars in process, especially in the Middle East, and there have been violations of the international law and of the human rights of the nations. Delegates must work together in order to address this major problem and ensure global, regional and local security where civil wars are taking place.

Historic Analysis: 1. A special case, the United States of America: The United States of America have an interventionist policy, and it is part of their history. Since the XIX century, the United States of America have participated in several international interventions around the world, including Latin America, the Middle East, South-western Asia, Africa and Europe. 2. Some interventions in civil wars of the 20th and the 21 Century:

A) 1947-1948 Palestinian Civil War: After the Palestine partition plan of the General Assembly of the United Nations, a civil war started due to the tension between the Jewish and the Muslims in the area. This conflict involved the use of terrorism. In May 15, 1948, several Arab nations declared war against Israel in support of the Muslim movement against the creation of Israel. The casualties rose faster after the involvement of Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Jordan, Egypt and Sudan. Finally, Israel won the conflict and the Palestine territories were reduced a 78%.

B) Vietnam War: The Second Indochina War (1955-1975), or the Vietnam War, was a political revolution that involved the raise of the Socialism doctrine in the country within the Cold War. In this armed conflict, a South Vietnamese revolutionary group named the Viet Cong, fought against the Government of South Vietnam. North Vietnam decided to support in 1960 the movement of the revolutionaries in the south with the help of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). The United States, trying to impede the expansion of the socialist regime, entered the war in the side of South Vietnam. By 1975, about a million people died, including north and South Vietnamese and US soldiers.

C) Yugoslav Wars (1900s): Independence groups from several nationalities inside the Balkan state, Yugoslav, fought against the government. The movement was primarily related to the Albanian population, and since 1991 the government conformed by Serbians restricted the use of Albanian language and the Albanian media. The people from that ethnic that worked in public institutions were fired, and their human rights violated. In 1999, the NATO decided to bomb Kosovo, with the objective to take out the Yugoslavian government. That same year, the Yugoslavian forces retreated from Kosovo, and the Yugoslav Wars finally came to an end. D) Afghanistan (2002): In Afghanistan before 2001, there were cultural collisions between Muslim ethnics due to the lack of tolerance, leading to armed confrontations between several ethnic groups. After the attack of September 11 the United States with the NATO invaded Afghanistan because the Taliban government supposedly supported the leader of the terrorist group Al-Qaeda, Osama Bin Laden, responsible for the attacks. The war still continues, even though the United States started do withdraw troop, by the Obamas presidency.

UN involvement: The United Nations have the role to regulate, impede, or approve international interventions: UN intervention takes several forms, primarily through a loophole system known as peacekeeping. There are two chapters of the UN Charter that deal with settlement of disputes that are likely to endanger the maintenance of international peace and security. The first, Chapter VI, deals with pacific settlement, and also gives the Security Council the right to investigate and arbitrate, which are usually put in practice under observer missions, diplomatic envoys, and good offices (UN Charter).

Current Civil armed conflicts: A) Syrian Civil War B) Afghanistan War C) Mexican Drug War D) Sudanese Nomadic Conflicts E) Iraqi Insurgency F) Islamist Protests in Egypt G) Somali War H) Colombian Conflict I) Palestine J) Congo K) Thailand L) Nigeria M) Other minor conflicts (less than 800 casualities

References: Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs. "Israel's War of Independence (1947-1949). "Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 2013. Israel Government. 9/21/2013 http://mfa.gov.il/MFA/AboutIsrael/History/Pages/Israels%20War%20of%20Independence%20%201947%20-%201949.aspx. General Assembly. "GENERAL ASSEMBLY VOTES OVERWHELMINGLY TO ACCORD PALESTINE. "General Assembly. 2012. UN. 2013 http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2012/ga11317.doc.htm. IF AMERICANS KNEW. "A Synopsis of the Israel/Palestine Conflict. "IF AMERICANS KNEW. 2011. IF AMERICANS KNEW. 2013 http://www.ifamericansknew.org/history/.

HistoryLearningSite.co.uk. "The Six Day War. "History Learning Site. 2012. History Learning Site. 2013 http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/six_day_war_1967.htm. Mark A. Tessler. A History of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. United Kingdom: Google Press, 2013. http://sobek.colorado.edu/~aydin/webpage/duration.pdf http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/brief-history-of-key-military-interventions-by-theus/2013/08/26/acb0590e-0eb1-11e3-bdf6-e4fc677d94a1_gallery.html#photo=6 http://politics.as.nyu.edu/docs/IO/5628/kelly_siegel.pdf http://www.umsl.edu/services/govdocs/wofact2001/geos/sr.html https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/af.html