Although not adopted, the text of draft resolution submitted to the UN Security Council by Jordan on behalf of “Palestine” merits examination. The submission of the draft resolution as such on behalf of the Palestinians was clearly a violation of the Palestinian undertaking under the Oslo agreement, in which Israel and the PLO agreed that “neither side shall initiate or take any step that will change the status of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip pending the outcome of the permanent status negotiations.”

Insofar as the UN Security Council is a political body making political decisions, even had the draft resolution been adopted it would not have been a judicial finding or a statement of international law, but rather a statement of the political views of the majority of members of the Council. The Security Council is authorized by the UN Charter to take binding decisions, but only when it determines under Chapter VII of the Charter that there has been “a threat to the peace, breach of the peace, or act of aggression.” None of the UN Security Councils resolutions since 1948 have used Chapter VII language in relation to the Israel-Palestinian conflict, including the Jordanian draft. Even Resolution 242 was not adopted under Chapter VII and only became binding when it was accepted by all the parties to the conflict.

Whereas Resolution 242 used ambiguous language in order to allow the parties to negotiate a solution, the Jordanian draft spelled out in full the Palestinian position, leaving nearly nothing to be negotiated. The draft resolution clearly drew inspiration from the 2002 Arab League Peace Initiative, but differs from it in a number of important aspects. The Jordanian draft sets out a rigid timetable calling for an end of “the occupation” by December 2017. The Arab League initiative had no such timetable. Unlike the Arab Peace Initiative, the preamble of the Jordanian draft refers to the 1947 UN General Assembly “partition” resolution. This reference is surprising since the partition resolution excluded Jerusalem from both the proposed Jewish and Arab States. The partition resolution furthermore explicitly referred to a “Jewish” state alongside an Arab state. One very positive element in the 2002 Arab League initiative was the statement that as a result of an agreement with the Palestinians, all the Arab countries would “consider the Arab-Israeli conflict ended and enter into a peace agreement with Israel” and “establish normal relations with Israel in the context of this comprehensive peace.” This positive overture by all the Arab states was omitted from the Jordanian draft.

While calling for total withdrawal from all the territories, including East Jerusalem, the Jordanian draft does, however, refer to the possibility of “mutually agreed, limited, equivalent land swaps,” a proposal not included in the Arab League initiative.

Read the article in full at INSS.