Israel's Right to Secure Boundaries: Four Decades Since UN Security Council Resolution 242

UN Security Council Resolution 242 from November 1967 is the most important UN resolution for peacemaking in the Arab-Israel conflict. Though carefully negotiated forty years ago in the aftermath of the 1967 Six-Day War, it remained the foundation for all peacemaking efforts from the Israel-Egypt Treaty of Peace to the Israel-Jordan Peace Treaty, to the Madrid Peace Conference and the Oslo Agreements. For any introductory student of the Middle East, it is well known that the resolution never established the extent of Israel s required withdrawal from territories captured during the Six-Day War, in exchange for peace with its Arab neighbors.

Nevertheless, over the past decade, several press organizations have falsely characterized UN resolutions as requiring Israel to withdraw entirely from the West Bank and Gaza. For example, an Associated Press article asserted: Security council resolutions 242 and 338 call on Israel to withdraw from all territory captured in the Arab-Israeli wars of 1967 and 1973, which includes east Jerusalem, the West Bank and Golan Heights. This characterization was completely inaccurate. Resolution 242 called on Israel to withdraw from territory, decidedly not all territory, and the borders of such a withdrawal were meant to reflect each state's right to live in secure and recognized boundaries in the region.