11 - UN Security Council Resolution 242

Summary

UN Security Council Resolution 242, adopted after the June 1967 Six Day War, was a non-binding recommendation for settling the Arab-Israel conflict. Israel and the Arab States agreed to accept the recommendations. Syria and the PLO at first refused to accept it but later, they also agreed to accept it, and thus it became the accepted framework for ending the Arab Israel conflict. The preamble of the Resolution states that acquisition of territory by war is inadmissible and that the conflict must be settled by peaceful means. The operative parts of the Resolution call for Israel to withdraw from territories occupied in the Six Day War, for the Arab States to end the state of war with Israel, for freedom of navigation in international waterways and for a just settlement of the refugee problem. The phrasing used in the clause about Israel withdrawal is “from territories.” There is a continuous disagreement as to whether this implies withdrawal from all the territories occupied or that the issue of borders is subject to negotiation between the parties. By accepting the Resolution, the Arab States apparently abandoned any legal basis for demanding Israel withdrawal from beyond territories occupied in the Six Day War.