Press Releases
For Immediate Release
| No. (E/40/04) |
25 November 2004 |
BADIL's Bulletin No. 22, November 2004
Equality and rule of law envisaged in Resolution 181
but the result is a state for some, occupation for others
Fifty-seven years ago, the UN’s adopted Resolution 181 which was supposed to split historic Palestine into two states: one Jewish, one Arab, governed by the rule of law.
What have we got now? For the Jew, there is Israel which guarantees basic rights and privileges to all 5 million Jews. For the 4.5 million Arabs in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories there are two types of entities:
(1) Arab Palestinians, citizens of Israel, making up almost 20 per cent of Israel’s population lacking equal rights to Jewish Israelis and
(2) the ‘rump’ areas of the Gaza, West Bank and eastern Jerusalem some of which supposedly are under the Palestinian Authority have in reality been under Israeli military occupation since 1967.
The creators of Resolution 181 had something different in mind. They saw two equal states each with a constitution as a condition for international recognition of independence. These contitutions were to include guarantees of equal and non-discriminatory rights in civil, political, economic and religious matters and the enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms, including freedom of religion, language, speech and publication, education, assembly and association.
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For a more on the resolution, see: Resolution 181: A state for some, occupation for others, BADIL Bulletin No. 22 published today on BADIL’s web site www.badil.org.
Res.181 was adopted on 29 November so the date marks International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. Commemorations will be be held at the UN in New York and Geneva and by others throughout the world.
Additional information for discussion and advocacy on the UN Day of Solidarity and Res.181 listed below is on www.badil.org/Index-Updates/News005.htm and the UN web site http:/domino.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF.
Occasional Bulletins (BADIL)
UN Resolutions
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UNGA 181(II), 29 November 1947: Partition of Palestine; UNGA 3236(XXIX), 22 November 1974: Inalienable rights of the Palestinian People, self-determination and return; UNGA 3376(XXX), 10 November 1975: Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People (CEIRPP); Vetoed UNSC Resolution re: CEIRPP Plan (see below)
Other UN Materials
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CEIRPP Report to UN Security Council, June 1976: Two-phase plan for return; timetable for withdrawal of Israeli forces from the occupied territories by 1 June 1977, with, if necessary, temporary peacekeeping forces to facilitate the process; end to establishing settlement; Israeli recognition of the 4th Geneva Convention as applicable to the occupied territories pending withdrawal; and endorsement of the inherent right of Palestinians to self-determination, national independence, sovereignty in Palestine.