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The Israeli-Syrian Crisis in the Light of the Arab-Israel Armistice System

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 May 2009

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The Palestine question has been before the United Nations since April 1947. In the four years which have since elapsed, the General Assembly and the Security Council have created no fewer than ten subsidiary organs to deal with various aspects of the question. Three of the bodies are still actively in existence. The United Nations Conciliation Commission for Palestine, set up by the General Assembly in December 1948, was directed to assist the parties “to achieve a final settlement of all questions outstanding between them.” The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, established under a General Assembly resolution of December 1949, was intended to shift the emphasis of United Nations-sponsored activities on behalf of the refugees of the Palestine war from relief to rehabilitation. Finally, there is the Security Council's Truce Supervision Organization.

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Articles
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Copyright © The IO Foundation 1951

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References

1 Resolution 194 (111).

2 Resolution 302 (IV).

3 Document S/1367/11.

4 United Nations, Security Council, Official Records, 4th Year, Special Supplements Nos. 1–4.

5 The comparable provision in the Egyptian agreement [article II (2)] reads: “No element of the land, sea or air military or para-military forces of either Party, including non-regular forces, shall commit any warlike or hostile act against the military or para-military forces of the other Party, or against civilians in territory under the control of that Party …”

6 Article II (2). The final phrase in the Syrian agreement reads: “dictated exclusively discreby military, and not by political, considerations.” The corresponding provision in the Egyptian agreement [IV (3)] reads: “rights, claims or interests of a non-military character in the area of Palestine covered by this Agreement may be asserted by either Party, and … these, by mutual agreement being excluded from the Armistice negotiations, shall be, at the discretion of the Parties, the subject of later settlement.”

7 From extract of text in United Nations, Security Council, Provisional Records, S/PV.546, p. 1215Google Scholar. See also Bunche's, statement in Official Records, 4th Year, No. 36, p. 58Google Scholar.

8 Document S/1459, p. 3.

9 The following articles of the agreements relate to the MACs: in the Egyptian agreement, article X; the Jordan, article XI; the Lebanese, article VII; and the Syrian, article VII.

10 Documents S/2048, p. 6, 8, 10, 14–15; S/2049, p. 6, 8; S/1459, p. 15; S/2067, p. 11; and S/2111, p. 2.

11 Document S/2048, p. 14.

12 United Nations, Security Council, Official Records, 5th Year, No. 59, p. 16Google Scholar, from statement by General Riley.

13 Documents S/1459, p. 6 and S/2048, p. 15.

14 United Nations, General Assembly, Official Records, 4th Session, Ad Hoc Political Committee, Annex II, p. 12Google Scholar; and Document S/1459, p. 13–14.

15 Cf. Document S/2049, p. 2–5.

16 Documents S/2047 and S/2194; the quotation from MrBunche's, statement appears in United Nations, Security Council, Official Records (4th year), No. 36, p. 6Google Scholar.

17 Documents S/2048, p. 8–10; and S/2049, p. 7–8.

18 Pertinent extracts of text may be found in United Nations, Security Council, Provisional Records, Document S/PV.546, p. 1215Google Scholar.

19 Text ibid., Document S/PV.542, p. 52.

20 Document S/1459, p. 10–13.

21 United Nations, Security Council, Provisional Records, Document S/PV.544, p. 1215, 16, 51, 52, 53, 54–55Google Scholar. For summary of negotiations and of Security Council discussion, see this issue, p. 538.

22 Nathan, Robert R., Gass, Oscar and Creamer, Daniel, Palestine: Problem and Promise (Washington, 1946), p. 409410Google Scholar; Palestine Government, A Survey of Palestine (Jerusalem, 1946), vol. I, p. 400401 and 415Google Scholar; Sa'id Himadeh, B., ed., Economic Organization of Palestine (Bayrut, 1938), p. 116118Google Scholar; The Jewish National Fund, The Challenge of the Huleh (Jerusalem, n.d.)Google Scholar; Great Britian, Colonial Office, Report … to the Council of the League of Nations on the Administration of Palestine and Trans-Jordan for the Year 1934 (London, 1935), p. 290297Google Scholar contains the text of the original concession.

23 United Nations, Security Council, Provisional Records, Document S/PV.544, p. 36Google Scholar, from statement of General Riley. See also document S/2213.

24 Document S/2049, p. 9–13, which includes the Riley text.

25 Document S/2067.

28 The evacuees signed a statement in which they “supposedly have asked for safety by being removed from certain villages in Israel”; from statement of Riley in the United Nations, Security Council, Provisional Records, Document S/PV.544, p. 37Google Scholar. No United Nations observers were allowed to visit the evacuees in their new settlement; for an account of their attitudes see Gruson's, Sidney despatch from Sha'b, Israel in New York Times, 06 4, 1951Google Scholar.

27 Documents S/2084, S/2088, S/2099, S/2101, S/2111, S/2113, S/2118, S/2120, S/2122, S/2123, S/2124, and S/2127.

28 Based on United Nations, Security Council, Provisional Becords, documents S/PV.541, p. 6, 21, 22, 26, 27Google Scholar; S/PV.545, p. 57, 58–60; and S/PV.547, p. 106, 107–110.

29 Based on ibid., document S/PV.542, p. 4–32.

30 Cf. ibid., p. 46–56 and all of document S/PV.544.

31 Ibid., p. 53 [Riley] and p. 32 [Jebb].

32 Document S/2130; and New York Times, May 15, 1951.

33 Document S/2157.

34 Cf. question raised by the Netherlands delegate to the United Nations, Security Council, Provisional Records, document S/PV.547, p. 1720, 156–160Google Scholar; and statements by the sponsors of the resolution in document S/PV.546, p. 45 and document S/PV.547, p. 141, 142–144 [France], p. 131, 132–135, 136–140 [Britain], and p. 145–150 [United States].

35 General's Riley's first report, document S/2173.

36 Document S/2185.

37 Documents S/2191, S/2193, S/2213, S/2213/Add.l, S/2234.