The status of Palestine in the United Nations and its implications for the Israeli–Palestinian conflict

Abstract

The Palestinian application for UN membership in 2011 started the debates over the nature of statehood and reactivated the initiatives in different bodies of the UN. This dissertation focuses on the role of the UN in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and highlights the legal and political aspects of statehood by applying the theoretical discussions to the Palestinian case. The political process of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is based on the developments at different levels, namely the ground level, the UN level, and interactions between these levels including the negotiations so this mechanism can be defined as a complex two-level game for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Whereas the unilateral actions of Israel and the power imbalance in favor of Israel create an important advantage for the Israeli actors at the ground level, the legitimizing role of the anti-Israeli resolutions for the Palestinian claims and the high amount of support for the Palestinians in the international arena provide some assets for the Palestinian actors. The ground level witnessed a struggle over sovereignty while the UN level created a struggle over international legitimacy. Five General Assembly votes and three Security Council votes in terms of the policies and voting behaviors of the prominent actors and representative cases were analyzed in this dissertation. As a result, the UN process strengthened the hands of the Palestinians and contributed to the settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. However, it should be accomplished with the support of the external actors and favorable regional context for a comprehensive solution.