Summary
The Security Council’s resolution of 22 March 1979, adopted by 12 votes to none with 3 abstentions (Norway, the United Kingdom and the United States), which affirms that the Geneva Convention of 12 August 1949 applies to the Arab territories occupied by Israel since 1967, including Jerusalem, determines that Israel’s policy and practices of establishing settlements in the Palestinian and other Arab territories occupied since 1967 have no legal validity and constitute a serious obstruction to a comprehensive, just and lasting peace, calls on Israel as the occupying Power to rescind its previous measures and not to transfer parts of its own civilian population into the occupied territories, and establishes a three-member Commission of the Council to examine the situation relating to settlements and report by 1 July 1979 — the Commission the decisions printed with the resolution compose of Bolivia, Portugal and Zambia (Resolution 446 (1979): Israeli settlements (22 March 1979), PDF p.1).
What the file is
The resolution as printed in the Security Council’s Official Records, on 1 PDF page, about 765 words in the text copy counting the whole page. The page also carries the tail of the preceding participation decisions, decisions on the Iranian UNDOF battalion’s repatriation, the 3 April 1979 note composing the Commission, and the opening of the 2141st meeting’s item, all accounted for below. The text copy’s OCR garbles scattered words; the operative wording was checked against the original’s printed page, which reads it cleanly, and quotations are corrected against the original where the text copy garbles them.
Section by section
- Preceding decisions (PDF p.1). Invitations to Kampuchea, Romania and, at the 2134th meeting on 22 March 1979, Saudi Arabia to participate without vote. Not part of the resolution.
- Preamble (PDF p.1). Having heard the statement of the Permanent Representative of Jordan and other statements; stressing the urgent need for a comprehensive, just and lasting peace; affirming once more that the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949, is applicable to the Arab territories occupied by Israel since 1967, including Jerusalem.
- Operative paragraph 1 (PDF p.1). Determines that the policy and practices of Israel in establishing settlements in the Palestinian and other Arab territories occupied since 1967 have no legal validity and constitute a serious obstruction to achieving a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the Middle East.
- Operative paragraph 2 (PDF p.1). Strongly deplores Israel’s failure to abide by Security Council resolutions 237 (1967), 252 (1968) and 298 (1971), the President’s consensus statement of 11 November 1976, and General Assembly resolutions 2253 (ES-V) and 2254 (ES-V) of 1967, 32/5 of 1977 and 33/113 of 1978.
- Operative paragraph 3 (PDF p.1). Calls once more on Israel, as the occupying Power, to abide scrupulously by the 1949 Geneva Convention, to rescind its previous measures 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, and in particular not to transfer parts of its own civilian population into the occupied Arab territories.
- Operative paragraphs 4-6 (PDF p.1). Establishes a commission of three Security Council members, appointed by the President after consultation, to examine the situation relating to settlements in the Arab territories occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem; requests its report by 1 July 1979; requests the Secretary-General to provide it the necessary facilities.
- Operative paragraph 7 (PDF p.1). Decides to keep the situation under constant and close scrutiny and to reconvene in July 1979 in light of the Commission’s findings. Adopted at the 2134th meeting by 12 votes to none, with 3 abstentions (Norway, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, United States of America).
- Following decisions (PDF p.1). The Secretary-General’s 13 March 1979 letter on repatriating the Iranian UNDOF battalion and transferring a Finnish UNEF company as a stopgap, agreed 14 March with China dissociating itself; the President’s note of 3 April 1979 that the Commission under paragraph 4 would be composed of Bolivia, Portugal and Zambia; and the opening of the 2141st meeting (26 April 1979) on the Secretary-General’s interim report under resolution 434 (1978) on UNIFIL. Not part of the resolution.
Key passages
- “Determines that the policy and practices of Israel in establishing settlements in the Palestinian and other Arab territories occupied since 1967 have no legal validity and constitute a serious obstruction to achieving a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the Middle East” (operative paragraph 1, PDF p.1)
- “not to transfer parts of its own civilian population into the occupied Arab territories” (operative paragraph 3, PDF p.1)
Evidence the work relies on
A Security Council resolution, not an evidentiary work. It proceeds from the statements heard before the Council, named in the preamble only as the statement of Jordan’s Permanent Representative and other statements, and from the prior resolutions and the 1976 consensus statement it lists in paragraph 2. The fact-finding it requires is prospective: the Commission it establishes is to examine settlements and report by 1 July 1979.
Analysis
The resolution couples a legal determination to a mechanism. Paragraph 1’s “no legal validity” attaches to the settlement policy and practices as such, not only to particular measures; paragraph 3 then restates the occupying Power’s Convention duties in the Convention’s own terms — rescission, no change to legal status, geography or demographic composition, and no transfer of the occupier’s civilian population. The Commission is the resolution’s enforcement substitute: three Council members, a fixed reporting date, and a Council reconvening keyed to its findings. The United Nations study already in the wiki records what followed — Israel did not co-operate, and the Commission’s reports were taken up in resolutions 452 (1979) and Resolution 465 (1980): Israeli settlements (1 March 1980).
People, organizations, places and events
UN Security Council Resolution 446, Fourth Geneva Convention, Security Council Commission on Settlements, City of Jerusalem, UN Security Council Resolution 252
Concepts
How it relates to other sources
This is the primary text for the UN Security Council Resolution 446 entity page, previously held from the summary in Origins and Evolution of the Palestine Problem: Part III (1978-1983); the text matches that account’s summary of paragraphs 1 and 3 and its record of the Commission’s composition (Bolivia, Portugal and Zambia, Portugal chairing — the chairmanship is in the study’s account, not in this file). Its successor Resolution 465 (1980): Israeli settlements (1 March 1980) accepts the Commission’s second report and escalates the determination to a flagrant violation; Resolution 476 (1980): Jerusalem (30 June 1980) carries the Jerusalem limb of the same line. The resolution was adopted four days before the signing of Treaty of Peace between the Arab Republic of Egypt and the State of Israel (26 March 1979), whose text contains no settlement provision.
Open questions
- The file does not name the Commission’s chairman; the study’s account names Portugal as chairman.
- Jordan’s statement and the other statements heard are not reproduced or summarized.
- The resolution does not specify the Commission’s methods, itinerary or powers to enter the territories.
Coverage
PDF p.1 of 1, read in full.