Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Israeli-Palestinian
Summit
April 10 - 12, 2015
D ARTM O U TH M ODEL U NITED N ATIO NS C ONFERENCE
Tenth Annual Conference April 1 0 - 1 2 , 2 0 1 5
Dartmouth College 6048 Haldeman Center Hanover, NH 03755
(603) 306-6676 E-mail: dartmun@dartmouth.edu
February 21, 2015
Ridhima Gurnani
Secretary-General
Dear Delegates:
Larry Liao
Director-General
Welcome to DartMUNs Committee on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. Your
William Jennings committee directors are Kelvin Chow and Mayer Schein. Kelvin is a freshman at
Chief of Staff Dartmouth College, and is interested in a Biomedical Engineering Major with a
possible Computer Science minor. Mayer is a junior at Dartmouth College, studying
Robert Scales Computer Science and Economics with a minor in Religion.
Charg dAffaires
Jordan Einhorn The quality of this committee rests on the commitment and preparation of its
Undersecretary-General of delegates. We encourage you to read this guide and use it, along with the provided
General Assemblies resources, to prepare for your sides debate. Please take note of the history of each
Kevin Zhang
side and prepare your argument accordingly. This conflict has a very long and well-
Undersecretary-General of documented history. Documents on preparation and procedure have also been
Special Committees provided for your convenience.
Justin Roshak
Undersecretary-General of This Special Committee will function pursuant to the regulations of parliamentary
Current Crisis Committees procedure. The particulars of Special Committee procedure as well as the purview of
this committee will be explained during the opening session. Finally, should you have
Ksenia Ryzhova any questions regarding topic, procedure, of otherwise, feel free to contact the dais.
Undersecretary-General of
Historical Crisis Committees We look forward to a fun and productive committee!
Joshua Koenig Sincerely,
Undersecretary-General of
Ad-Hoc Committees
Kelvin Chow and Mayer Schein
Alanna Kane IPS Committee Chairs
Director of Public Relations DartMUN X
Adam Grounds
Director of Technology
Ruben Gallardo
Lopez
Director of Finances
Julia Pomerantz
Director of Philanthropy
Israeli-Palestinian Summit
DartMUN X
The Israeli position is that it acquired That the refugees wishing to return to their
sovereignty of West Jerusalem when it won the homes and live at peace with their neighbors
War of Independence in 1948, and of East should be permitted to do soand that
Jerusalem when it won the Six Day War in 1967. compensation should be paid for the property
According to Israel, Jordan took control of East for those choosing not to return and for loss of
Jerusalem illegally, via an act of aggression in
1948, and therefore never acquired sovereignty. or damage to property.
Since Israel conquered the territory in 1967 In 1967, following the Six-Day War, another
during a war of self-defense, it claims to have a
Palestinian exodus occurred. Between 280,000
stronger basis for sovereignty over the land.
and 350,000 Palestinians fled or were expelled
The Israeli position on Resolution 181 is that from the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and the
when the Arabs rejected the resolution, it Golan Heights. Among them were an estimated
became null and void, and the possibility of 120,000 to 170,000 refugees from the first war,
Jerusalem being an international territory ended. fleeing for the second time.
Almost all Prime Ministers of Israel have openly
announced that they refuse to divide Jerusalem, In November 1974, United Nations General
and that Jerusalem will remain Israels undivided Assembly Resolution 3236 declared the right of
and eternal capital, though they all agree that the return to be an inalienable right.
city should be open to people of all faiths.
Many Palestinians believe in an inherent right of
return to the land that their ancestors owned
and lived on prior the establishment of the State
Israeli-Palestinian Summit
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of Israel in 1948. They therefore believe that any
peace agreement should be grant them full
Questions to Consider
Israeli citizenship. Following Resolution 194,
many Palestinians have argued that Israel is 1. Can there be a peace treaty between Israel
bound under international law to accept a full and the Palestinians that does not grant either
Palestinian right of return. side the right of return? Can they simply cancel
each other out?
Other Palestinian leaders point out what they
see as a massive injustice the fact that Jews 2. Should the right of return be limited to
from around the world are allowed to immigrate granting citizenship, or should people be
to Israel, and become full citizens, under Israels allowed to return to the actual land they left
Law of Return, even if their ancestors did not behind?
live there. Palestinians, who cannot apply for
citizenship nor return to the territory that their 3. If you leave on your own, are you entitled to
ancestors live on, view this as a discriminatory the land you leave behind? Does being expelled
policy. make you entitled to return to that land?
The traditional Israeli viewpoint is that Arab 4. There were 750,000 Palestinian refugees, but
leaders are the ones who told Palestinians to their descendants add up to over 5 million
evacuate their homes when the neighboring people. Should they all be included in the right
Arab countries initiated the war in 1948. of return?
Opponents of the Palestinian Right of Return
argue that the Palestinian refugees left on their
own, and Israel has no obligation to them.
Topic 3: Water Rights
Additionally, they argue that international law
does not have the authority to demand
repatriation of refugees and their descendants. The primary source of water in the area that
This severely limits the power of international borders Israeli and Palestinian territory is a
legislation, as well as United Nations number of springs that are fed by the Mountain
resolutions, downgrading them to Aquifer, which is located under both Palestine
recommendations rather than law. and Israel. Israels water resources include the
Sea of Galilee, a large freshwater lake, water
In recent years, Israelis have responded to
from the Jordan River, reclaimed water,
Palestinian complaints by demanding that Jews
desalinated water from the ocean, and water
who were displaced from Arab countries during
from the Mountain Aquifer. Most of Palestines
the two wars also be granted a right of return, or
water comes from the Mountain Aquifer.
at least compensation. Bringing this issue to
light has made the negotiations even more As Israel has continued to settle into Palestine,
complicated. disagreements over the rights over water springs
in the area have continued to occur. The Oslo
Accords set water usage of the Mountain
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Aquifer as the amount that was currently used
by both sides at the time, and restricted the
References
drilling of new wells. However, Israeli
settlements have continuously claimed wells, The CIA World Factbook
reducing the amount of water available to
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-
Palestinians.
world-factbook/
Almost all Palestinians believe that these wells
are rightfully theirs. This is partially due to the
belief that Israeli settlements into Gaza are BBC: A Timeline of Conflict
illegal due to previous agreements on land http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/middle
partitions, and that Israeli water usage is a _east/03/v3_ip_timeline/html/
violation of human rights of their people.
Israelis believe that their water usage has not Amnesty International Israel
changed since the agreement, since rainfall has
been reduced in the region that feeds into the http://www.amnesty.org/en/region/israel-
Mountain Aquifer. They believe that they use occupied-palestinian-territories
the amount of water agreed upon in the Oslo
Accords.
Amnesty International Palestine
http://www.amnesty.org/en/region/palestinian
Questions to Consider -authority
3. Does the West Bank Barrier claim water that UN Progress Report on Palestine (December
rightfully belongs to Palestine? 11, 1949 October 23, 1950)
http://unispal.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/0/93037
E3B939746DE8525610200567883
UN Resolution 194
http://unispal.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/0/C758
572B78D1CD0085256BCF0077E51A
Israeli-Palestinian Summit
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UN Resolution 3236 (Bottom Left Section) http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?New
sID=42751#.VHujMTHF98F
http://daccess-dds-
ny.un.org/doc/RESOLUTION/GEN/NR0/7
38/38/IMG/NR073838.pdf?OpenElement
UN Water Factsheet
http://unispal.un.org/pdfs/OCHA_PalWaterS
UN Resolution 242 prings-Factsheet.pdf
http://unispal.un.org/unispal.nsf/0/7D35E1F7
29DF491C85256EE700686136
UN Water Dispossession Report
http://unispal.un.org/pdfs/OCHA_PalWaterS
UN Resolution 338 prings.pdf
http://unispal.un.org/unispal.nsf/0/7FB7C26F
CBE80A31852560C50065F878
UN Water and the Development of Palestine
http://unispal.un.org/pdfs/47657-GZ.pdf
Documents of the Camp David Accords
http://www.jimmycarterlibrary.gov/documents
/campdavid/ BBC Israeli-Palestinian Water Conflict
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-
11101797
Oslo Accords
http://cis.uchicago.edu/sites/cis.uchicago.edu/
files/resources/CIS-090213-israelpalestine_38- Gaza Emergency Situation Report (September
1993DeclarationofPrinciples_OsloAccords.pdf 4, 2014)
http://unispal.un.org/pdfs/OchaGazaSitRpt_0
40914.pdf
Oslo II Accords
http://www.refworld.org/cgi-
bin/texis/vtx/rwmain?docid=3de5ebbc0 MUN Preparation Guidelines
http://www.unausa.org/munpreparation