Name:	End The Occupation
Country:	U.S.A.
Date:	Monday, 30 September 2002

“Are Security Council resolutions to be honored and enforced or cast aside without consequence? Will the United Nations serve the purpose of its founding or will it be irrelevant?”

--President George Bush, speaking before the United Nations on September 12, 2002

   We welcome your recognition of the importance of a relevant United Nations and of the critical need to enforce Security Council resolutions. In your speech you refer specifically to Iraq’s failure to comply with the provisions of Security Council Resolution 687 (April 3, 1991). Enforcing this resolution in its entirety would clearly be in the interests of world peace, as it calls for steps “towards the goal of establishing in the Middle East a zone free from weapons of mass destruction and all missiles for their delivery” (Article 14). Such a goal requires the dismantling not just of Iraq’s arsenal, but of Israel’s hundreds of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction.

No country has done more than Israel to make the United Nations seem irrelevant, and no country has been in violation of more Security Council resolutions. Since 1967, the following 45 Security Council resolutions relating to Israel’s military occupation of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem have been “cast aside without consequence.”

• SC Res. 237 (June 14, 1967): return of Palestinian inhabitants who fled from their homes.

• SC Res. 242 (Nov. 22, 1967): “inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war” and “withdrawal of Israeli forces from territories occupied in the conflict.”

• SC Res. 252 (May 21, 1968): rescind measures changing legal status of Jerusalem; end expropriation of land and properties.

• SC Res. 267 (July 3, 1969): rescind measures changing legal status of Jerusalem.

• SC Res. 271 (Sept. 15, 1969): rescind measures on Jerusalem and observe provisions of Geneva Conventions and international law governing military occupation.

• SC Res. 298 (Sept. 25, 1971): rescind measures on Jerusalem that “change the status quo of the City.”

• SC Res. 338 (Oct. 22, 1973): implement SC resolution 242 (1967) “in all its parts.”

• SC Res. 368 (April 17, 1975): Israel must implement 242/338.

• SC Res. 369 (May 28, 1974): implement 242/338.

• SC Res. 371 (July 24, 1975): implement 242/338.

• SC Res. 378 (Oct. 23, 1975): implement 242/338.

• SC Res. 390 (May 28, 1976): implement 242/338.

• SC Res. 396 (Oct. 22, 1976): implement 242/338.

• SC Res. 398 (Nov. 30, 1976): implement 242/338.

• SC Res. 420 (Nov. 30, 1977): implement 242/338.

• SC Res. 446 (March 22, 1979): deplores failure of Israel to abide by 237 and 252; end settlement activities in the occupied territories.

• SC Res. 452 (July 20, 1979): end settlement activities in occupied territories, including Jerusalem.

• SC Res. 462 (March 1, 1980): dismantle existing settlements.

• SC Res. 468 (May 8, 1980): stop expulsions.

• SC Res. 469 (May 20, 1980): stop expulsions.

• SC Res. 471 (June 5, 1980): comply with Geneva Conventions; protect Palestinians; occupation must end.

• SC Res. 476 (June 30, 1980): comply with Geneva Conventions; occupation must end.

• SC Res. 478 (Aug. 20, 1980): declares new basic law for Jerusalem null and void.

• SC Res. 484 (Dec.19, 1980): those expelled must return.

• SC Res. 592 (Dec. 8, 1986): comply with Geneva Conventions.

• SC Res. 607 (Jan. 5, 1988): protect Palestinians.

• SC Res. 608 (Jan. 14, 1988): no expulsions.

• SC Res. 636 (July 6, 1989): no expulsions.

• SC Res. 641 (Aug. 30, 1989): no expulsions.

• SC Res. 672 (Oct. 12, 1990): expresses alarm at killing of 20 Palestinians in Jerusalem; sending UN Mission.

• SC Res. 673 (Oct. 24, 1990): accept UN Mission.

• SC Res. 681 (Dec. 20, 1990): deplores expulsions.

• SC Res. 694 (May 24, 1991): stop expulsions.

• SC Res. 726 (Jan. 6, 1992: comply with Geneva Conventions; stop expulsions.

• SC Res. 799 (Dec. 18, 1992): stop expulsions.

• SC Res. 904 (March 18, 1994): protect Palestinians.

• SC Res. 1073 (Sept. 28, 1996): protect Palestinians.

• SC Res. 1081 (Nov. 27, 1996): implement 242/338.

• SC Res. 1265 (Sept. 17, 1999): implement Hague Conventions and Geneva Conventions.

• SC Res. 1322 (Oct. 7, 2000): condemns excessive force; comply with Geneva Conventions.

• SC Res. 1397 (March 12, 2002): implement Mitchell plan; calls for two-state solution.

• SC Res. 1402 (March 30, 2002): withdraw from Palestinian cities.

• SC Res. 1403 (April 4, 2002): implement 1402.

• SC Res. 1405 (April 19, 2002): lift restrictions on Jenin; send fact-finding team.

• SC Res. 1435 (Sept. 24, 2002): withdraw from cities.

We urge your Administration to seek an even-handed enforcement of all Security Council resolutions. This must include the resolutions cited above that would implement international law, protect Palestinian human rights and bring about an end to Israel’s 35-year-old occupation. As a step towards these aims, we ask the US to support the United Nations’ call for an international force to be sent to the occupied territories to provide a measure of protection for both sides to the conflict. 

Respectfully yours,