Enclosed is a concise description of the major falsehoods contained in United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334, adopted on December 23, 2016.  This resolution has absurdly and shockingly labeled Judaism’s holiest places, such as the Temple Mount and the Western Wall, as “occupied Arab land.”  It has also wrongly labeled Judea and Samaria, the Jewish Quarter, Hebrew University, Hadassah Hospital and the Mt. of   Olives – the site of the oldest Jewish cemetery in the world – as “occupied Arab land.” 

Quite simply, Resolution 2334 has turned the truth on its head.  It has also attempted to negate UN Resolution 242, Article 80 of the League of Nations, and the Oslo agreements, which proclaimed either that these areas are sovereign Jewish land or that negotiations between the parties are required to make a final determination of the status of these areas.  Either way, a UN resolution cannot unilaterally decide. 

We hope this is a useful resource for you, clarifying your understanding of why UN Resolution 2334 is unfair, unjust and even anti-Semitic.

THE UN’S RESOLUTION 2334 – ITS LIES ABOUT ISRAEL

1. UN: Israel has no legitimate claim to Judea and Samaria because the land was acquired by force.

Facts:

• Israel has a legitimate legal claim to Judea and Samaria, which pre-dates the 1967 war. The 1917 Balfour Declaration recognized the Jewish people’s historic connection to the land of Israel, and explicitly called for the establishment of a national home for the Jewish people. This declaration was incorporated by the Allied Powers in a resolution at the 1920 San Remo conference. A Jewish national homeland, including Judea and Samaria, was enshrined in the League of Nations’ British Mandate for Palestine. (Palestine was a region, never a state) and later recognized in Article 80 of the UN Charter.
• Israel acquired Judea and Samaria (“West Bank”) in a defensive war, against an illegal occupier – Jordan. Jordan occupied Judea and Samaria in a war to destroy the fledgling Jewish State in 1948 and illegally annexed it in 1950 with no prior legal title to the territory; the annexation was recognized by only two countries, Britain and Pakistan.  Since no internationally recognized sovereign control previously existed, the territory cannot be considered “occupied” by Israel.

2. UN: Israel does not abide by the Fourth Geneva Convention which states (in Article 49): “An occupying power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.”

Facts:

• Israel is not an “occupying power” for two reasons. First, it is legally entitled to the lands it controls per the parameters established by the 1920 San Remo Conference.  Second, since the lands were not the sovereign territory of any country prior to 1967, Israel cannot be considered to be “occupying” them.  In addition, the Geneva Convention only applies to signatory nations.  The Palestinian Authority is not a signatory or a nation.
• Jews are not being coercively deported or transferred from Israel to Judea and Samaria. They are moving there of their own free will, nor has there been a coercive deportation of Palestinian Arab populations.  

3. UN: Jewish communities (“settlements”) imperil the viability of a Palestinian State Solution based on the 1967 lines.

Facts:

• Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria are not an obstacle to peace. These built up areas comprise less than 2% of the territory of Judea and Samaria. Further, approximately 20% of the population of Israel is comprised of Palestinian -Arabs who live there freely and safely. Jews live freely and safely in countries throughout the world. Why can’t Jews live freely and safely in Judea and Samaria? If one claims it wouldn’t be safe for Jews to live in a Palestinian Arab state, why would anyone want to establish a terrorist Judenrein state?
• The true obstacle to the viability of a Palestinian State Solution is the Palestinian-Arab commitment to the destruction of the Jewish state of Israel, and murder of its inhabitants. It is evidenced by their maps showing all of Israel as Palestine, and by their daily violence against Jews and their promoting the murder of Jews in their schools, media, and speeches. The Palestinian Liberation Organization was formed in 1964 – three years before a single Israeli-Jew lived in Judea and Samaria. And the 1964 PLO charter which is still on Palestinian Authority websites, as well as the Fatah and Hamas Charters, call for armed struggle against Israel.

4. UN: Israel is obligated to freeze building in Judea and Samaria due to demands of the international community.

Facts:

• There is no provision in the Oslo Accords which required Israel to “freeze” construction within existing communities. Prime Minister Netanyahu did completely freeze all construction in Judea and Samaria for 10 months in 2010, a precondition set by the Palestinian Authority to negotiate a peace agreement with Israel. But the Palestinian Authority leadership refused to sit down with the Israeli delegation until the freeze was nearly over and then refused to come back to the table after the freeze concluded, even though there has been a defacto freeze ever since.

5. UN: eastern Jerusalem is Arab land, and its Jewish inhabitants are “settlers” who are in violation of international law.

Facts:

• For all of recorded history, with the exception of the illegal Jordanian occupation from 1948-1967 recognized only by Pakistan, Jerusalem has been a united city. The city has had a majority Jewish population since the end of the 19^th
• The eastern part of Jerusalem houses the holiest places to the Jewish people, including the Kotel (the Western Wall) and Har Habayit (The Temple Mount) and the Mt. of Olives. It is incomprehensible and a denial of history that this resolution would deem these places to be in “occupied Palestinian territory.”

6. UN: Reaffirming its relevant resolution, including resolutions 242 (1967)…

Fact:

• UNSC 2334 violates UN Resolution 242 and the Oslo Accords, which require that a final agreement must be obtained by negotiations between the two parties.