Summary
The Security Council’s resolution of 21 May 1968, adopted by 13 votes to none with 2 abstentions (Canada and the United States of America), recalling General Assembly resolutions 2253 (ES-V) and 2254 (ES-V) of July 1967, deploring Israel’s failure to comply with them, considering that all legislative and administrative measures and actions taken by Israel, including expropriation of land and properties thereon, which tend to change the legal status of Jerusalem are invalid and cannot change that status, and urgently calling upon Israel to rescind all such measures already taken and desist forthwith from any further action tending to change Jerusalem’s status (Resolution 252 (1968) on measures to change the status of Jerusalem (21 May 1968), PDF p.1-2).
What the file is
The resolution as printed in the Security Council’s Official Records (printed p.9-10), English only in the text copy. 2 PDF pages, about 1,355 words in the text copy including the surrounding April-May and August-September 1968 Jerusalem and cease-fire material: the file also contains in full resolutions 250 (1968) and 251 (1968) on the Jerusalem military parade, the decisions inviting Jordan, Israel and Mr. Rouhi El-Khatib, and, after Resolution 252, the August decisions and resolution 256 (1968), with a September decisions tail cut off at the file end. The text copy’s OCR garbles scattered words (“Secwrity” for Security, “miiltary” for military); the operative wording of Resolution 252 was checked against the original, which carries the same OCR layer.
Section by section
- Preceding sequence (PDF p.1). The President’s statement of the 1412th meeting, 4 April 1968 (concern at renewed hostilities; the Council to remain seized); the 1416th meeting decision, 27 April 1968, inviting Jordan and Israel on Jordan’s letter of 25 April 1968 (S/8560); Resolution 250 (1968) of 27 April 1968, calling on Israel to refrain from the military parade in Jerusalem contemplated for 2 May 1968, adopted unanimously at the 1417th meeting; the 1418th meeting decision, 1 May 1968, adding the Secretary-General’s Jerusalem report (S/8146) to the agenda; Resolution 251 (1968) of 2 May 1968, deeply deploring the holding of the parade that day in disregard of the Council’s unanimous decision, adopted unanimously at the 1420th meeting; and the 1421st meeting decision, 3 May 1968, inviting Mr. Rouhi El-Khatib under rule 39 to make a statement.
- Preamble of Resolution 252 (PDF p.1). “Recalling General Assembly resolutions 2253 (ES-V) of 4 July 1967 and 2254 (ES-V) of 14 July 1967”; having considered Jordan’s letter on the situation in Jerusalem (S/8560) and the Secretary-General’s report (S/8146) and heard the statements before the Council; “Noting that since the adoption of the above-mentioned resolutions Israel has taken further measures and actions in contravention of those resolutions”; bearing in mind the need to work for a just and lasting peace; “Reaffirming that acquisition of territory by military conquest is inadmissible”.
- Operative paragraphs 1-3 (PDF p.1). “Deplores the failure of Israel to comply with the General Assembly resolutions mentioned above”; “Considers that all legislative and administrative measures and actions taken by Israel, including expropriation of land and properties thereon, which tend to change the legal status of Jerusalem are invalid and cannot change that status”; “Urgently calls upon Israel to rescind all such measures already taken and to desist forthwith from taking any further action which tends to change the status of Jerusalem”.
- Operative paragraph 4 and adoption (PDF p.2). The Secretary-General is requested to report on implementation. “Adopted at the 1426th meeting by 13 votes to none, with 2 abstentions (Canada and United States of America).”
- Following material (PDF p.2). Decisions of 5 and 7 August 1968 inviting Jordan, Israel, the United Arab Republic, Iraq, Syria and Saudi Arabia on the June and August letters (S/8616, S/8617, S/8721, S/8724); Resolution 256 (1968) of 16 August 1968 condemning Israel’s further large-scale air attacks on Jordanian territory, adopted unanimously at the 1440th meeting; and the September 1968 decisions on S/8794, S/8805 and S/8806, cut off at the file end. None of this is part of Resolution 252.
Key passages
- “Considers that all legislative and administrative measures and actions taken by Israel, including expropriation of land and properties thereon, which tend to change the legal status of Jerusalem are invalid and cannot change that status” (operative paragraph 2, PDF p.1).
- “Urgently calls upon Israel to rescind all such measures already taken and to desist forthwith from taking any further action which tends to change the status of Jerusalem” (operative paragraph 3, PDF p.1).
- “Reaffirming that acquisition of territory by military conquest is inadmissible” (preamble, PDF p.1).
Evidence the work relies on
A Council resolution, not an evidentiary work. It relies on the instruments it names: General Assembly resolutions 2253 (ES-V) and 2254 (ES-V), Jordan’s letter S/8560, the Secretary-General’s report S/8146, and the statements heard before the Council, none reproduced in the file. Resolutions 250 and 251 in the same file rely in turn on the Secretary-General’s note S/8561 and reports S/8561 and S/8567.
Analysis
Resolution 252 moves from the parade dispute of resolutions 250-251 to the legal-status question: its operative core is a validity judgment (measures tending to change Jerusalem’s legal status “are invalid and cannot change that status”) paired with a rescission call, rather than a factual finding about any single measure, none of which it names. Its limits are in the text: it does not define Jerusalem’s legal status, list the measures concerned, or set a deadline, and its only machinery is a Secretary-General’s report on implementation.
People, organizations, places and events
UN Security Council, UN Security Council Resolution 252, City of Jerusalem, Israel, Hashemite Jordan Kingdom
Concepts
How it relates to other sources
This is the primary text behind the Jerusalem-status position later ingested sources invoke: the United Nations study’s Jerusalem section records the successor resolutions 476 and 478 (1980) and the Assembly’s null-and-void determinations on the “Basic Law”, all in the line this resolution opens in 1968 (Origins and Evolution of the Palestine Problem: Part III (1978-1983)). Within this batch it is the Jerusalem-specific companion to Resolution 242 (1967) (22 November 1967)‘s general inadmissibility principle, whose preamble it echoes as “acquisition of territory by military conquest is inadmissible”, and to Resolution 2443 (XXIII): Respect for and implementation of human rights in occupied territories (19 December 1968), which addresses the occupied territories’ population in the same year. Against Resolution 303 (IV), it does not restate an international regime for the city; it addresses only the validity of Israel’s measures.
Open questions
- The measures and actions held invalid are not named or dated in the resolution, and Jerusalem’s legal status, which they cannot change, is not defined in the text.
- General Assembly resolutions 2253 (ES-V) and 2254 (ES-V) are recalled but not reproduced in this file, so the compliance deplored in paragraph 1 can be specified only from those texts.
- Mr. Rouhi El-Khatib, invited under rule 39 on 3 May 1968, is not identified by office or affiliation in the file.
Coverage
PDF p.1-2 of 2, read in full.