Summary
The General Assembly’s resolution of 11 May 1949, adopted at its two hundred and seventh plenary meeting under Article 4 of the Charter and rule 125 of its rules of procedure, deciding that Israel is a peace-loving State which accepts the obligations contained in the Charter and is able and willing to carry out those obligations, and deciding to admit Israel to membership in the United Nations; its preamble records the Security Council’s report and recommendation on Israel’s application, Israel’s declaration that it unreservedly accepts the Charter obligations, and — recalling the Assembly’s resolutions of 29 November 1947 and 11 December 1948 — takes note of the declarations and explanations made by the representative of the Government of Israel before the ad hoc Political Committee in respect of the implementation of those resolutions (Resolution 273 (III): Admission of Israel to membership in the United Nations, PDF p.1).
What the file is
The resolution as printed in the General Assembly’s Official Records, printed p.18 (PDF p.1). 1 PDF page, about 851 words in the text copy counting both languages and the preceding resolution’s tail. The text is printed in two columns, English and French in parallel; the English text is the text followed here. The page begins with paragraphs 2-4 of the preceding resolution on Bulgaria and Hungary and human rights (two hundred and third plenary meeting, 30 April 1949), which are not part of Resolution 273. The text copy’s OCR garbles several words (“Adminion” in the heading for Admission, “ad hoe” for ad hoc); the operative wording was checked against the original.
Section by section
- Preceding Bulgaria and Hungary material (PDF p.1). Paragraphs 2-4 noting steps by Peace Treaty signatories, urging Bulgaria and Hungary to honour their Treaty obligations on human rights and fundamental freedoms including co-operation in settlement, and retaining the question on the fourth regular session’s agenda. Not part of Resolution 273.
- Preamble, Security Council clauses (PDF p.1). Having received the Security Council’s report on Israel’s application for membership (footnote 1: document A/818), the Assembly notes that in the Security Council’s judgment Israel is a peace-loving State able and willing to carry out the Charter obligations, and that the Security Council has recommended that the Assembly admit Israel.
- Preamble, Israel’s declaration (PDF p.1). The Assembly notes furthermore Israel’s declaration that it “unreservedly accepts the obligations of the United Nations Charter and undertakes to honour them from the day when it becomes a Member of the United Nations” (footnote 2: document S/1093).
- Preamble, recall and implementation clause (PDF p.1). The Assembly recalls its resolutions of 29 November 1947 (footnote 3: Resolutions of the second session, pages 131-132) and 11 December 1948 (footnote 4: Resolutions of Part I of the third session, pages 21-25), and takes note of the declarations and explanations made by the representative of the Government of Israel before the ad hoc Political Committee in respect of the implementation of the said resolutions (footnote 5: documents A/AC.24/SR.45-48, 50 and 51).
- Operative paragraphs (PDF p.1). Acting under Article 4 of the Charter and rule 125, the Assembly (1) decides that Israel is a peace-loving State which accepts the Charter obligations and is able and willing to carry them out; (2) decides to admit Israel to membership in the United Nations. Dated to the two hundred and seventh plenary meeting, 11 May 1949.
Key passages
- “unreservedly accepts the obligations of the United Nations Charter and undertakes to honour them from the day when it becomes a Member of the United Nations” — Israel’s declaration, as quoted in the preamble (PDF p.1).
- “Decides that Israel is a peace-loving State which accepts the obligations contained in the Charter and is able and willing to carry out those obligations” (operative paragraph 1, PDF p.1).
- “Decides to admit Israel to membership in the United Nations” (operative paragraph 2, PDF p.1).
Evidence the work relies on
- The resolution is an act of the General Assembly under Article 4 of the Charter; it incorporates its grounds by reference rather than reproducing them: the Security Council’s report on the application (document A/818), Israel’s declaration accepting the Charter obligations (document S/1093), the Assembly’s own resolutions of 29 November 1947 and 11 December 1948, and the Israeli representative’s declarations and explanations before the ad hoc Political Committee (documents A/AC.24/SR.45-48, 50 and 51). None of those documents’ texts are reproduced in this file.
Analysis
The resolution’s reasoning is contained entirely in its preamble, and its structure matters: admission follows four noted grounds — the Security Council’s judgment and recommendation, Israel’s unreserved acceptance of the Charter, and, between them in the final preamble clause, the recall of the 1947 and 1948 resolutions together with the taking note of Israel’s representative’s declarations and explanations on the implementation of those resolutions. The operative paragraphs state no conditions: they decide the Charter test (peace-loving, accepts, able and willing) and admit. What the Israeli representative said about implementation is therefore part of the resolution’s stated basis without being part of its text — it exists in this file only as a footnote reference to the ad hoc Political Committee summary records. The resolution gives no vote figures.
People, organizations, places and events
UN Security Council, Israel, UN General Assembly Resolution 181, UN General Assembly Resolution 194
Concepts
How it relates to other sources
- This file is the primary text for the admission that Palestine Inside Out: An Everyday Occupation summarises as the United Nations admitting Israel while explicitly recalling Resolutions 181 and 194 as among the bases for admission, with the comment that neither resolution has been implemented (PDF p.315-316, as recorded on UN General Assembly Resolution 194). The primary text’s wording is narrower and is held here alongside that gloss: it recalls the two resolutions and takes note of declarations and explanations on their implementation; it does not in its operative part make admission conditional on implementation.
- It completes, for the three instruments it links, the sequence now held as primary texts in the wiki: Resolution 181 (II): Future government of Palestine (29 November 1947), Resolution 194 (III): Palestine — Progress Report of the United Nations Mediator (11 December 1948) and the present resolution (11 May 1949), together with Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel (14 May 1948), whose appeal to the United Nations to receive Israel into the comity of nations this resolution answers a year later.
Open questions
- The resolution gives no vote figures for the admission decision; no figure from another source is imported here.
- The content of the Israeli representative’s declarations and explanations on implementation of the 1947 and 1948 resolutions (documents A/AC.24/SR.45-48, 50 and 51) is not in this file; any account of what was said must come from those records or from an ingested source quoting them, not from this resolution’s text.
- Israel’s declaration in document S/1093 is quoted only in the single sentence reproduced in the preamble; the full declaration is not in this file.
Coverage
PDF p.1 of 1, read in full