Summary
The 1979 Security Council resolution which, in the United Nations study’s account, determined that Israel’s policy of establishing settlements in the Palestinian and other Arab territories occupied since 1967 had no legal validity and constituted a serious obstruction to peace, and established a three-member Commission of the Council to examine settlements, whose three reports were commended in resolutions 452 (1979) and 465 (1980) and whose third report had not as yet been considered by the Council when the study was written (Origins and Evolution of the Palestine Problem: Part III (1978-1983), lines 185-232).
Details
- The resolution called on Israel to abide scrupulously by the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949, and to desist from any action changing the legal status and geographical nature and materially affecting the demographic composition of the Arab territories occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem, in particular not to transfer parts of its own civilian population into the occupied Arab territories (lines 187-191 approx.).
- The Commission’s members were Bolivia, Portugal and Zambia, under the chairmanship of Portugal; it was to report by 1 July 1979. Israel did not co-operate despite repeated appeals (lines 191-195 approx.).
- Resolution 452 (1979) of 20 July 1979 commended the Commission’s work and requested a further report before 1 November 1979 (lines 197-199 approx.).
- Resolution 465 (1980) of 1 March 1980 accepted the second report’s (S/13679) conclusions, determined that all measures taken by Israel to change the territories’ physical character, demographic composition, institutional structure or status have no legal validity and that settling parts of its population and new immigrants was a flagrant violation of the Geneva Convention, called on all States not to provide assistance to be used specifically in connection with settlements, and asked the Commission to investigate the reported serious depletion of natural resources, particularly water (lines 199-201 approx.).
- The third report (S/14268), quoted at length in the study, found a correlation between settlements and displacement of the Arab population, coercive methods including control of water, seizure of property, destruction of houses and banishment, and that “33.3 per cent of the West Bank has been confiscated to date”; by 1983 Israel had established 204 settlements (lines 201-232 approx.).
- The Programme of Action for the Achievement of Palestinian Rights invited the Security Council to consider urgently the Commission’s reports and to reactivate the Commission (lines 537-539 approx.).
Related pages
Fourth Geneva Convention, Programme of Action for the Achievement of Palestinian Rights, Origins and Evolution of the Palestine Problem: Part III (1978-1983), City of Jerusalem