Law Faculty School of International Studies Title: ‘Operation ‘Cast Lead’ as a demonstration of the Israeli- Palestinian Conflict: UN Intervention’. Thesis prior to obtaining a degree in International Studies with bilingual major in Foreign Trade Author: Mónica Trelles Muñoz Director: Dr. Esteban Segarra Cuenca, Ecuador 2014 1 DEDICATION To Adriana, On the faith that she grows up in a peaceful world; witnessing the ideal of the liberty of the Palestinian people come true. 2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS To God, for the infinite blessings and their manifestations. To my brother Kaiser, for being the reason to move forward, for having always believed in me and for being the strength to face each challenge with cheer and optimism. To my mother Jannet, for being the best role model, for bringing me up in goodness and for supporting me unconditionally in every path of life. To Francisco, for being the best life partner, for demonstrating me his love in every circumstance, for his unparalleled support and patience. To Paúl, Johanna, Verónica, María del Carmen and Antonio for their personification of the concept of friendship, for holding me in the most complicated moments and sharing with me the best ones. I owe each one of them infinite words of gratitude and love. To my grandparents Laura and Manuel. To Enrique Santos, for having been the one who sowed interest in me for the Palestinian people. To Norma Aguirre, for her good will. To Esteban Segarra. 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS DEDICATION…………………………………………………………………………………...2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS………………………………………………………………………3 TABLE OF CONTENTS………………………….………………………………………………4 INDEX OF FIGURES AND TABLES………….…………………………………………………7 LIST OF ANNEXES..….………………………………………………………………………….8 ABSTRACT.………………………………………………………………………………………9 INTRODUCTION...………………………………………………………………………….…11 1. CHAPTER I: BACKGROUND Introduction………………………………………………………………………………12 1.1 The Arrival of Zionism to Palestine…………………………...………………13 1.2 British Mandate for Palestine…………………………………………………18 1.3 UN Partition Plan………………………………………………………………..22 1.4 Declaration of Independence of the State of Israel……………………27 1.5 Arab-Israeli Wars………………………………………………………………..31 1.6 The Israeli Occupation………………………………………………………..39 1.7 Conclusions……………………………………………………………………...48 2. CHAPTER II: UNITED NATIONS INTERVENTION Introduction…………………………………………………………….…………..……49 2.1 United Nations General Assembly Resolutions………………………...…50 2.2 United Nations Security Council Resolutions…..………………………….60 2.3 Palestinian Refugees……………………………………………...…………...67 2.4 US Veto in favor of Israel …………………………………………………..…73 2.5 Middle East Quartet: The Roadmap………….........................................79 2.6 UN Subsidiary Agencies in Palestine……………......................................82 2.7 Conclusions………………………………………………………………..…..100 4 3. CHAPTER III: OPERATION ‘CAST LEAD’ Introduction…………………………………………………………...………………..101 3.1 Israeli Political Parties………………………………………………………...102 3.2 Palestinian Political Parties…………………………………..……………...112 3.3 Benjamin Netanyahu ………………………………………………………..120 3.4 Hamas……………………………………………………………………..……124 3.5 Palestine’s 2006 Electoral Process…………………………………………127 3.6 Invasion of Gaza (2008 – 2009)………………………………….…………130 3.7 Conclusions…………………………………………………………….………138 4. CHAPTER IV: CONSEQUENCES Introduction…………………………………………………………...………………..139 4.1 UN Humanitarian Aid……………………………………………..………….140 4.2 From Bush to Obama………………………………..……………………….144 4.3 Goldstone Report…………………………………………………………….147 4.4 The Israeli attack to the Freedom Flotilla…………………..…………….151 4.5 Negotiations between Israel and Palestine………………………..……156 4.6 Conclusions……………………………….……………………………………162 CONCLUSIONS……………………………………………………………………………..163 BIBLIOGRAPHY……………………………………………………………………………...164 ANNEXES……………………………………………………………….…………………….169 5 INDEX OF PHOTOGRAPHS AND CHARTS Index of Photographs PHOTOGRAPHY NO. 1 Brave IDF soldier 'defending himself' against ruthless Palestinian …………………………...……………………………………………………….40 PHOTOGRAPHY NO. 2 Israeli against United Nations……...……………….………...50 PHOTOGRAPHY NO. 3 Nakba…………….....……………………………………………67 PHOTOGRAPHY NO. 4 Refugee Camp…………..…………………………….…..…..70 PHOTOGRAPHY NO. 5 Attack in a UNRWA school in Beit Lahia ……………....…134 PHOTOGRAPHY NO. 6 Benjamin Netanyahu and Barack Obama ……......……146 Index of Charts CHART NO. 1 UN Partition Plan ………………………………………..…………………24 CHART NO. 2 1949 Armistice Map ……………………..……………………..…………33 CHART NO. 3 Standard text of a warning issued by the IDF to evict a closed military zone…………………………………………………………………………..….......44 CHART NO. 4 The US Veto in the UN ………………….…………………………….......73 CHART NO. 5 Operation ‘Cast Lead’ Fatalities ………….……………………...…..135 CHART NO. 6 Breakdown of Palestinian Fatalities ………….……………….……...135 Index of Tables TABLE NO. 1 UNRWA: Refugee Statistics ……………………………….....……………24 TABLE NO. 2 Composition of the Flotilla…………………………..…………………….33 6 Index of Annexes ANNEX 1. Balfour Declaration ……………………………………….………………….160 ANNEX 2. UN General Assembly Resolution 181.……………………..……………...161 ANNEX 3. Palestine Declaration of Independence ……………………………..…183 ANNEX 4. UN Security Council Resolution 242.……………………………………….187 ANNEX 5. Roadmap……………………………………………………………………….188 7 ABSTRACT A historical approximation to conflict between Israel and Palestine is an essential step in overcoming the obstacles of understanding the issue. This paper takes into account the roles of the main actors of the conflict: Israel, Palestine and the International Community – represented in the United Nations. What has been the role of the United Nations in the conflict? Taking as a reference point Operation ‘Cast Lead’ - December 2008/January 2009 –, the study presented hereby will attempt to provide an answer to this question. 8 INTRODUCTION The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is extremely complicated to study and understand. The extent of the conflict goes far beyond two nations struggling for a State. We need to take into account historical, political and humanitarian situations. First, it is necessary to lay the historical foundation of the conflict, channeled through Zionism. The ideology of a religious state faces several obstacles in its development. The idea of a people without a land, a land without a people encountered a land with a people. Since then Zionism has been a synonym for the ethnic cleansing of the Palestine. Secondly, it is necessary to gauge the effectiveness of the international community… in this particular case through the United Nations system. United Nations has been part of the conflict in many ways: UN General Assembly Resolutions, UN vetoes, Roadmap and humanitarian agencies of the organization. Evidently oppression produces resistance. Several conflicts have arisen between Israelis and Palestinians. The rise in Hamas’s popularity as the representative of the Palestinian resistance led to Operation ‘Cast Lead’. Several lives were taken in the operation. Thus it involved political, opinion and action consequences. 9 FIRST CHAPTER Introduction A complex conflict such as the one between Israel and Palestine needs to be supported on a historical basis. Despite of being a situation that even nowadays is shaped daily; its history goes back a long time. The main ideological foundation to understand is Zionism, which led the Jews to focus on the creation of a Jewish State. A story of exile and several forms of discrimination led to a world movement, they chose the territorial wholeness of biblical Israel. Once Jews arrived in Palestine, conflict with the Arabs was inevitable. Great Britain took over Palestine, an ungovernable territory. Finally, it returned Palestine back to the United Nations. During this time Israel declared its independence, a fact with significant consequences. The Independence War was the first of many clashes between Israel and Arab Countries and Palestinians, the latter in recent years. Nonetheless, the biggest obstacle to a solution is the continuation of the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory. 10 The Arrival of Zionism to Palestine The historic responsibility of the world over the Jewish people is undeniable. A people that have BEARED exiles and terrible forms of discrimination found on the emigration towards Palestine the solution to its problems. However, the character of the era made of this solution a colonialist campaign in which for Jews to find peace, the peace of Palestinians had to be sacrificed. The history of the existence of the Jewish people dates back many years before the Christian era. Besides of having inhabited Israel for more than three millenniums, they also survived multiple exiles. Therefore the relation of Jews with their age-old land is indisputable. It is worth pointing out that they kept their lifestyle and their own law, no matter the places they found themselves in. Starting from these circumstances a sense of belonging to the country awakened and was of great importance for the development of the Zionist campaign. The Middle Age was characterized by the existence of ghettos. Ghettos were zones in which the Jews were isolated and which they could not leave but to work. They weren’t allowed to buy land either, which is the reason for their lack of agricultural basis. These zones became “States within the State, externally inflicted, as it were, but governed, by the free will of its inhabitants, from within” 1 . The countries of strongest subjugation were Russia and Poland, becoming the places of origin of the Zionist ideology. Years later, a new form of discrimination arose: the pogroms. The pogroms consisted in