York College YCMUN 4/5/2014
York
College of Pennsylvania
Letter
from the Director of Security
Council
Dear
Delegates,
I
would like to take a moment to officially welcome you to the 2014 York
College
of Pennsylvania Model United Nations Conference. My name is Kurt Keller
and I
will be serving as the Director of Security Council. A little bit about
myself,
I am a sophomore history & political science major. I am an Eagle
Scout and
a Vigil Member of the Order of the Arrow. I work as a Campus Safety
Officer
here at York and at our college radio station, WVYC 88.1FM where I host
a
Thursday night radio program entitled, “Around The Clock Rock.” While
I’m not
working or doing school work, I am the Chairman of the York College
Conservative Forum, I am a World War I German Re-enactor.
To
put it simply, Security Council is challenging. Security Council’s
topics are
focused on the Jewish Palestine Question and a review of United Nations
Peace
Keeping forces. It is one of the most important aspects of the United
Nations
and holds a great deal of responsibility. The greatest challenge is
compromising while holding strong the ideals of the individual nations
while
still remembering to protect international interests and rights.
Agreements
must be made to benefit the majority, sometimes at the expense of the
minority.
As delegates, you will be representing your assigned nation and spend
the next
month researching and preparing for committee. You will need to put
aside your
own views and inhibitions in order to represent the needs and
aspirations of
your nation. It will be a challenge, but it will be worth the hard work
and
dedication.
The
goal of the conference is to create a fun and engaging simulation to
increase
your knowledge of many different things including the United Nations as
a
whole, such as how it functions, international politics and your own
personal
skills such as public speaking and cooperation. In order to prepare for
the
conference it would be in your best interest to thoroughly read this
guide.
This guide is only the starting point, providing background information
on the
Security Council, the two topics, and the actions currently being taken
to
solve the issues. If at any time you have a question during or before
the
conference, feel free to contact me (kkeller8@ycp.edu).
Thank
you, and the best of luck,
According
to Article 26
of the United Nations Charter, the United States Security Council
(UNSC) is the
body tasked to “promote the establishment and maintenance of
international
peace and security with the least diversion for armaments of the
world's human
and economic resources, the Security Council shall be responsible for
formulating, with the assistance of the Military Staff Committee
referred to in
Article 47, plans to be submitted to the Members of the United Nations
for the
establishment of a system for the regulation of armaments.” (Chapter 5,
Article
23-26).
The
Security Council
held its first session on January 17, 1946 at Westminster Palace in
London.
UNSC consists of fifteen members of the United Nations including five
(China,
France, Russia, United Kingdom, United States) permanent members and
ten non-permanent
members. Under the charter of the United Nations, all members must
comply with
the decisions of the Security Council. While using its power to attempt
peaceful negotiations between two parties, it can use military force to
keep or
restore peace (United Nations 2013).
Topic:
The Israel Palestine Problem.
The
dispute in the region of the Middle East known as both Palestine and
Israel has
been going on since before recorded history. The modern situation in
the area
began after World War II when Britain withdrew from the area after the
establishment of the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine in
1947. The
committee decided to divide the region into the Jewish State of Israel,
an Arab
state and a small United Nations controlled zone which centered on
Jerusalem.
This plan was adopted on November 29, 1947. The Jews accepted the plan
but the
Arabs rejected it. After Britain’s withdrawal in 1948, both sides
prepared for
war (Washington Post 2014).
Tensions
continued to mount after the State of Israel ignored the plan of the
committee
and adopted Jerusalem as its capital in December, 1949 instead of Tel
Aviv. Until
1956, the fighting was limited to border skirmishes. The situation
changed in
1956 when President Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt nationalized the Suez
Canal. On
October 29, 1956, Israel made a preemptive strike and invaded the
Egyptian
territory, capturing the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula. After
yielding to
international pressures by the United Nations mainly the U.S.S.R. and
the
United States, the Israeli’s removed their troops in November, 1956. In
March,
1957, U.N. peace keeping troops were sent to the area (Washington Post
2014).
Six-Day
War
In
1967, Nasser convinced the U.N. to withdraw its troops from the region
allowing
Egypt to blockade the Israeli Port of Elat by closing the Strait of
Tiran. Israel
responded by attacking Egypt and Syria on June 5, 1967. Six days later,
Israel
controlled the Golan Heights region of Syria, the West Bank and the
Arab sector
of Jerusalem which gave the conflict the name, the Six-Day War
(Washington Post
2014).
On
October 6, 1973, on Yom Kippur, Egypt and Syria attacked Israeli troops
on
Sinai and the Golan Heights. Towards the end of the conflict, Israel
struck
back against both Syria and Egypt by clearing a path to Cairo and
pushing the
Syrians towards Damascus. A cease fire was called by the Security
Council on
October 22 and 23rd (Washington Post 2014).
For
the next few years
several agreements were reached between the warring parties. In
December of
1973 the first conference was held in Geneva, Sqitzerland resulting in
an
agreement to end hostilities. Israel withdrew to the Sinai Peninsula
and a U.N.
buffer zone was created. A similar agreement was reached in May 1974 in
which
the Israelis agreed to vacate the land seized during the 1973 war
(Washington
Post 2014).
The
next major
agreement was reached on March 26th, 1979 in Washington,
D.C.
between Egypt and Israel known as the “Camp David Accords.” In the
treaty Egypt
agreed to officially recognized Israel as a nation and limit military
size in
Sinai in return for Israel returning Sinai to Egypt (Washington Post
2014).
Renewed
Conflict
In
the 1980’s Israel
made several attempts to conquer Lebanon but withdrew in 1985. In 1987,
the Intifada, an youth Arab uprising began
against Israeli control. In 1991, Israel suffered from Iraqi missile
attacks in
Saddam Hussein’s attempt to widen the Persian Gulf War. Peace talks
resumed in
August 1991 (Washington Post 2014).
In
1993 with the defeat
of the Conservative Likud Party, Yitzhak Rabin became prime minister.
In 1993,
Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization agreed to join
recognition and
limited Palestinian self governance in the Gaza Strip and Jericho. In
1995,
they agreed on a transition to Palestinian rule in the West Bank. In
1994,
Israel and Jordan signed a peace treaty, ending the forty-six year war.
In
1995, Rabin was assassinated by an Israeli extremist. In early 1996,
Israel was
hit by a series of suicide bombs and Shiite Muslims in Lebanon launched
rocket
attacks into Israel. In retaliation, Israel blockaded the port of
Beirut. The
1996, the first direct popular election of the Prime Minister resulted
in
Likud’s Benjamin Netanyahu becoming the next prime minister. In 1997
parts of
Hebron was handed over to Palestine as were additional pieces of West
Bank
territory in 1998. The Palestinian Authority promised to fight
terrorism. In
May 1999, the Labor party returned to power under Ehud Barak. His
coalition
government met with Yasir Arafat, the Palestinian leader in order to
finalize
their borders and to determine the status of Jerusalem. Israel handed
over most
of the West Bank by March 2000 (Washington Post 2014).
Collapse
of the Coalition
By
May 2000, support of
Barak’s coalition faded after three of the center-right parties of the
Israeli
government withdrew their support. This along with new increased
terrorism
attacks along the West Bank caused Barak to resign in December, 2000.
After
failure to end the attacks, Ariel Sharon, Barak’s successor, ordered
the
reoccupation of the West Bank in order to halt the attacks in 2002. The
more
liberal elements of the Israeli government accused Sharon of favoring
Israeli
interests rather than peace causing Sharon to form a four party right
wing
coalition government. Talks resumed and a three month cease fire was
established but a new wave of suicide bombing caused Israel to attack
Syria in
2003 (Washington Post 2014).
West
Bank & Gaza
Despite
being declared
illegal in late 2003 when the International Court of Justice declared
its
construction illegal, the ongoing construction of a 400 mile fence
around the
West Bank continues to be an international controversy. In 2004,
tensions in the
Gaza Strip boiled over after the death of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, a leader
of
Hamas. Sharon put a plan into action to withdraw from the area, but it
met
opposition from Likud forcing Sharon to create a new coalition. In May
2005,
Israeli troops began withdrawing from the area (Washington Post 2014).
Palestinian
Authority & The United
Nations
On
November 29, 2012,
the United Nations General Assembly granted Palestine official observer
status
and the Palestinian Authority was admitted into UNESCO.
Aid
Programs
Since
the creation of
the state of Israel after World War II, open fighting has caused the
creation
of millions of refugees. Since 1949, the UN Relief and Works Agency for
Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) has been providing relief
work in
the region. Today, it provides education, relief services and income
generation
programs for over 4.6 million Palestinian refugees. Due to reductions
in
donations the program has only been able to provide no more than 30% of
the
nutritional needs of the refugees in the Gaza strip (United Nation:
Department
of Public Information, 2009). According to the UNRWA, their budget for
2010 and
2011 stood at $1.23 billion (UNRWA).
Recently,
the United
Nations Democracy Fund (UNDEF) implemented a media movement in order to
bridge
the communication gap that occurred in the Palestinian territory. This
fund was
created in order to train civilians in producing radio talk show and to
produce
programming on good government, development and democratic issues. This
is one
of the many programs that have been developed to aid the Palestinians
(UNDEF,
2013).
Questions
to Consider:
1.
What should be the solution in the region? For
example, should a two-state system be developed?
2.
Should Israel return the Golan Heights to Syria?
3.
What should be done about the West Bank?
Topic:
Review United Nations Peacekeeping Operations
One
of the missions of the United Nations is to maintain peace in order for
nations
to settle their disputes peacefully. As part of its mission, the United
Nations
sanctions peacekeeping efforts through military force. The most famous
example
is the Korean War (then called a Police Action) of 1950-1953. Currently
there
are fifteen peace keeping actions and one special political mission
which is
the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (United Nations
Peacekeeping, 2013). Security Council Resolution 2086 (2013) reformed
the
process and structure of peacekeeping operations.
Afghanistan
The
United Nations
Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) is a political mission
established by
the Security Council in 2002 at the request of the provisional
government in
order to keep the peace.
On
March 19, 2013,
Security Council unanimously adopted resolution 2096 (2013) which
renewed the
mandate of the mission and laid out the scope and activities of UNAMA
for the
following year (UNAMA, 2013).
Starting
in 2012, the
United States began its withdraw from Afghanistan. In 2014, President
Obama
asked the Pentagon to consider a plan for a complete withdraw from
Afghanistan
at the end of 2014. The Obama administration is currently negotiating a
security agreement with the Afghani government. A senior Pakistani
Official
(whose name was withheld) warned if the United States pulled out
completely
from Afghanistan, a full civil war will ensue (
Mali
The
United Nations
Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) was
established on 25 April, 2013 by the Security Council in Resolution
2100. MINUSMA’s
mission is to “support political processes in that country and carry
out a number
of security-related tasks”
Darfur
The
African Union and UN
Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID) was established on July 31, 2007
with
Security Council resolution 1769. The primary goal of UNAMID is the
protection
of civilians but it is also tasked with security for humanitarian
assistance
and for enforcing resolutions in the area.
South
Sedan
The
civil war in Sedan
which resulted in South Sudan gaining independence in 2011 required
direct
United Nations supervision due to the conflict impact on international
and
regional security. Security Council resolution 1996 (2011) July 8, 2011
established the United Nations Mission in the Republic of South Sudan
(UNMISS) “for
an initial period of one year as from 9 July 2011 with the intention to
renew
for further periods as may be required” (UNMISS, 2011).
Questions
to Consider
1.
Which peacekeeping operations are meeting their
goals and which ones need to be reformed?
2.
Are peacekeeping operations still relevant in the
new millennium?
3. Are there
any areas where peacekeeping needs to
be considered as an appropriate course of action?
United
Nations General Assembly, Department of
Public Information. 2012. General
Assembly Votes Overwhelmingly to Accord Palestine “Non-Member Observer
State”
Status in United Nations; Objective to ‘Breath New Life’ into Peace
Process,
Says Palestinian President; Israel’s Delegate Counters, Without Direct
Negotiations, Peace Remains ‘Out of Reach’. GA/11317. http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2012/ga11317.doc.htm
(February 10, 2014).
---.
2009. “The UN in Brief, Humanitarian Assistance:
Palestine Refugees.” http://www.un.org/Overview/uninbrief/palestine.shtml
(February 10, 2014).
United
Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan. 2013.
“UNAMA: MANDATE.” http://unama.unmissions.org/Default.aspx?tabid=12255&language=en-US
(February 23, 2014).
United
Nations Office on Sport for Development and
Peace. 2013. “United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine
Refugees in
the Near East.” http://www.un.org/wcm/content/site/sport/home/unplayers/fundsprogrammesagencies/unrwa
(January 22, 2014).
United
Nations Peacekeeping. 2013. “Current
peacekeeping operations.” http://www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/operations/current.shtml
(February 23, 2014).
United
Nations Security Council. 2013. “The Security
Council.” http://www.un.org/en/sc/
(January 22, 2014).
United
Nations Mission in the Republic of South
Sudan. 2011. “UNMISS Background.” http://www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/missions/unmiss/background.shtml
(February 23, 2014).
Washington
Post. 2014. “Country Guide: Israel.” http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/world/countries/israel.html?nav=el
(January 25, 2014).