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Dear Delegates, It is my pleasure to welcome you to the 2013 Israel-Palestine Joint Cabinet Crisis at Yale and to what will undoubtedly prove to be an exciting half, the Palestinian Authority. My name is John Sununu and I am thrilled to be your chair for these next several days. I was born in Boston but grew up between my native New England and not-so-native Paris. My family has spent the last several years in Washington and I was pleased to be able to remain on the east coast for college. I am currently a junior at Yale University studying French and Economics. My love for French has shaped much of my college experience; I have worked as a diplomatic interpreter for the US Department of State, an intern at Chanel, and a translator at Yale Law School. This linguistic study was what first angled me towards the field of international relations, where I found an interest in Model UN. At Yale, I am the Head Delegate of MUNTY, the Model United Nations Team at Yale, consistently ranked one of the top competitive Model UN teams in the world. When not traveling domestically and abroad with my team, I have the pleasure of chairing Yale’s conferences, including YMUN in New Haven, and serving as a member of the executive board of YIRA, the Yale International Relations Association. The other fundamentally critical player in the Palestine sub-committee is Mahir Rahman, whose hard work culminated in this fantastic topic guide. Mahir is a sophomore at Yale University studying neuroscience. A native of New York City, he spent his childhood growing up in Atlantic City, New Jersey. He keeps himself very busy outside of class, having worked as a Youth Ambassador at the Congressional Leadership Youth Council, a researcher at Yale Medical School, and a liaison for the Quest Scholars Network. He, too, has a love of languages, with competency in French, Korean, and Bengali. A phenomenally dedicated member of YIRA, Mahir has worked tirelessly to ensure this committee will be a success. With that, Mahir and I are honored to serve on your Dais over this weekend and we look forward to meeting all of you. We await a weekend of illuminating discussion on the future of the IsraelPalestine conflict and hope to continue our trend of past successes in committees at YMUN. While we certainly expect you to look over the topic guides that we have provided, do not restrict your research to this source alone. We expect a very high level of speaking and strategy in this committee and expect you to arrive fully prepared for a weekend of discourse and debate. If you have any questions or concerns leading up to the conference, please feel free to contact us. We are committed to making this committee the best possible experience for you and your fellow delegates. Warmly yours, John Sununu Mahir Rahman
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john.sununu@yale.edu mahir.rahman@yale.edu
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TABLE OF CONTENTS History of the Committee History and Modernity (Palestine) Timeline Committee Role and Structure Committee Members Questions to Consider Suggestions for Further Research "##$%#$&'! ! ! ! !
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History of the Committee !
Mahir and I are so thrilled to be leading this committee precisely because it is so groundbreaking. Never b책efore have such esteemed representatives from both Israel and Palestine been brought together in such a dynamic setting to debate the problems plaguing both of our nations. The Joint Cabinet Crisis format will allow you to negotiate among peers, explore your portfolio powers, and enact secretive directives in a small, intimate setting. Furthermore, we expect that the 15 delegates representing Palestine and the 15 delegates representing Israel will be interacting throughout our time together. Our two states are, for better and for worse, intimately linked, and this bond will be one of the constant themes underscoring our debate and actions. As you will undoubtedly remember, this committee was only accessible through a merit-based application process. Consequently, the level of discourse in this committee will be elevated, the perfect backdrop for this revolutionary body.
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History and Modernity (Palestine) !
Archaeologists have dated fossils found in the current area of Israel and Palestine back to before 8000 B.C. A number of Semitic tribes, particularly the Canaanites, settled in the area, at which point it became known as the Land of Canaan. As different tribes settled in the area, according to Abrahamic religious text, Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt and, under Joshua, they conquered the city states of Canaan. Thereafter, the land passed through many regimes, including through King David, the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Persians, and the Seleucids. The Jewish Revolt of 167 B.C. passed the land over to Roman rule indirectly under the Maccabeans in 164 B.C. and directly by them when they invaded Judea in 61 B.C. They eventually named the area Palaestina for the “Philistine Syria�. During the 7th century, Muslim Arabs ventured north of Arabia and conquered most of the Middle East and let the current inhabitants
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keep their Jewish or Christian religion but the area grew overwhelmingly Muslim. In 1098, the Crusaders formed an alliance with the Fatimids of Egypt to conquer the Middle East and then, a year later, broke their alliance and killed many Jews and Muslims in the process. In 1178, the Muslim ruler Saladin besieged Palestine and beat down each following crusade until they left for good in 1291. The Ottoman Empire took Palestine from the Mamelukes in 1517 and offered a safe haven for Jews seeking refuge during the Spanish Inquisition. Zionism and Palestinian national feelings were born in the chaos between the Napoleonic Wars, Ottoman rule, and Egyptian rule, all of which severely cleared the population. Despite eventual Ottoman restrictions on Jewish settlement, Jews managed to bribe their way into the area. With the emancipation of European Jewry, the blending of modern nationalism and messianic aspirations brought
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about a Zionist migration to Palestine, which was further stimulated by Jewish oppression in Eastern Europe. During World War I, the Ottomans deported many foreign nationals out of Palestine, many of which were Russian Jews, but those that hid formed the NILI underground that fed intelligence to the British. The Arabs fought for their independence against the Ottomans and aided the Allies under the condition that all the Middle East be returned to them. The Balfour Declaration caused some controversy as it was an unofficial directive on the establishment for a Jewish national home in Palestine before the area was conquered. At the 1919 Paris Peace Conference, when Palestine was made the British Mandate, the Arabs felt they were in danger of dispossession by the Jews. The issue mattered less so with the Allied Powers because the British and French focused on the division of their rights, not on the view of the inhabitants. The future conflicts started to appear clearly as David Ben Gurion, the eventual first Prime Minister of Israel, stated in 1919: “But not everybody sees that there is no solution to this question...We as a nation, want [Palestine] to be ours, the Arabs as a nation, want this country to be theirs.� In 1922, the British Mandate was split into Palestine west of the River Jordan and Transjordan east of it. Hostility was present from the municipal level up as Arabs would not participate in anything where Jews were
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involved. Jewish immigration, escaping persecution in Eastern Europe, swelled the land. The Jewish Agency, the Zionist face of the government, set up the Hesder, which allowed many Jews to leave Germany during the rise of Hitler in exchange for funds to support the Third Reich. The Husseini family and Fawzi El Kaukji started the Great Uprising in 1936 and killed multitudes of Jews and Arabs that did not support their hegemony. The Jewish community responded with defensive measures and random bombings on Arab civilians. With this havoc, the Peel commission planned to partition Palestine into a Jewish and an Arab state but the Arabs wanted Jewish immigration completely curtailed. The British, in response to the riots, started limiting immigration through the 1939 White Paper that would have Jewish immigration be approved by the Arabs after 5 years of capped immigration. During the Holocaust, illegal immigration of Jews ended up saving many lives but also essentially ended those that were caught by either British or Nazi blockades. After Lord Moyne, British Minister in charge of carrying out the policy of the White Paper, was assassinated by the Jewish Lehi underground in 1944, the Zionists were considered enemies to Winston Churchill and the British government. The Jewish Agency, in turn, ostracized and turned over members of the Lehi and Irgun underground over to the British to save face.
UNCSW 8 ! The Haganah continued illegal immigration and the underground groups eventually united after World War II and used terrorist tactics to drive the British out of Palestine so that immigration had no restrictions. The British public and several nations urged the British government to allow immigration. Finding them ungovernable, the British gave the British Mandate of Palestine over to the United Nations, the successor of the League of Nations. Hoping to compromise, the United Nations Special Commission on Palestine (UNSCOP) planned on dividing it into a Jewish state and an Arab state in UN Resolution GA 181 on November 29, 1947. At the time, 8% of the land was owned by Jews and only 600,000 of them inhabited the mandate, whereas slightly less than half of the land was owned by Arabs and 1.2 million of them inhabited the mandate. The partition plan would have the immediate area of Jerusalem be international land and the area surrounding it be Arab land, along with the Gaza Strip and the northern tip neighboring Lebanon, with the rest being considered Jewish land. All parties involved and the neighboring Arab nations disapproved of the plan. In fact, each group had a different agenda that led to the 1948 ArabIsraeli War.
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Arab and Jewish irregular groups instigated riots throughout the mandate in late 1947. Although there were massacres and plenty fleeing, the hostilities remained limited until Syria, Jordan, and Egypt joined the war and the state of Israel was proclaimed on May 14, 1948. The war was fought in many periods due to a number of ceasefires. The outcomes of the war brought masses of Palestinian refugees into the neighboring Arab nations. Feelings remained bitter as the Arab nations would neither recognize the borders or statehood of Israel and refused to sign any treaty with them. The Arab League instituted an economic boycott on Israel that continued into the 1990s. After the Egyptian Revolution of 1952, an Israeli spy was caught trying to blow up multiple US agencies in Egypt in 1954 to spark tensions between the two nations, known as the “Lavon Affair�. Egypt got on the defensive and closed off the Suez Canal to the Israelis and amassing arms from the Eastern bloc. When Israel invaded Sinai on October 29th, 1956, with the aid of the British and French, the UN General Assembly Resolution 997 urged them to leave and the restrictions of the canal were lifted. While in studying in Cairo in 1957, Yasser Arafat formed a student group that
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became the Fatah, which called for effective action against Israel and ridiculed Arab leaders for their impotence, prompting Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt to form the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO). Tensions for the Arab seat of power, especially between Egypt and Syria, prompted bellicose rhetoric. The dialogue turned into action following the Israeli cultivation of demilitarized zones, Soviet push, and hostile statements by Levi Eshkol’s Chief of Staff Itzhak Rabin. On June 5th, 1967, Israeli started attacking Egyptian forces and agreed to a UN ceasefire (UN Resolution 242) on June 10th, 1967 after conquering the Golan Heights. The sentiment of these Arab groups shifted from the extinguishing of Israel to the protection of the Palestinians now under Israeli rule as Yasser Arafat of the Fatah became Chairman of the PLO. Israeli offered the return of the Golan Heights for the demilitarization of Sinai to Egypt and Syria, both of whom refused. A meeting between King Hussein of Jordan and Ya’akov Herzog met privately but not peace agreement was made. Many conferences and proposals were made to no avail and fighting again broke out in the War of Attrition during July 1970 and stopped after Nasser and Israeli both agreed to UN Resolution 242. No other peace agreements were made as Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir held her ground for Arab concession. Under Sadat, Egypt allied with Syria again and started the Yom Kippur War on October 6th, 1973. The casualties of war amassed to 2,700 Israeli and 8,500 Arab, which quickly prompted the forced resignation of
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Golda Meir for Yitzhak Rabin. Saudi Arabia led the oil embargo of Israel, the US, and the Netherlands, which demonstrated how much political leverage the Arab bloc could utilize. UN observer status was granted to Arafat and the PLO in 1975. Under President Jimmy Carter, Sadat of Egypt and Menahem Begin of Israeli signed a peace treaty at Camp David. The progress did little to hide the religious hostilities that prompted the Lebanese Civil War. The war pitted the PLO support and Muslim militias against the Christian Phalangists, the Southern Lebanese Army (SLA), and IDF factions along the southern border of Lebanon. Most of the casualties were civilians and the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon could not establish peace until the US brokered a ceasefire in July of 1981. The peace was instantly lost when Israeli Ambassador Shlomo Argav was massacred in London by Abu Nidal faction members. It is believed that Israeli Defense Minister Ariel Sharon planned the operation to move full force into Lebanon. The restart of the war also brought the birth of the Hizbolla (Hezbollah) from the factions sent by the Iranian regime. When IDF entered Beirut to restore order following the massacre of Lebanese President-Elect Bashir Gemayel in 1982, the Phalangists massacred 700 people in Sabra and Shatilla, causing international uproar and Israeli retreat from Lebanon. Order came to Lebanon after it became a Syrian satellite. In November 1985, Jonathan Pollard was arrested for spying for Israel and was served a life imprisonment, damaging US-Israel
UNCSW 10 ! relations in the process. Palestinians were agitated by how relations with Israel were turning out; they started retaliating in the form of riots. Nearly a thousand Palestinian were killed by the Israeli and many more were arrested in response in the event that became to be known as the First Intifada. The remnants of the Muslim Brotherhood founded Hamas soon thereafter and the Palestinian National Council of the PLO declared the Palestine was a state in abstania. Following the Yitzhak Rabin’s transition into Israeli Prime Minister, 1993 marked the first technical peace between Palestine and Israel as Arafat and the PLO returned to Gaza; as the PLO chartered became nonviolent in purpose and action, Area A and Area B were given back Palestine and Israel promised to not create settlements in areas of Gaza and the West Bank. After Baruch Goldstein massacred 30 Muslims praying in the Tomb of Abraham, civil life became hostile. Regardless of all the suicide bombings occurring during the time, the Oslo Interim Agreement, which created the Palestinian National Authority, was signed in 1995. On November 5th, 1995, Prime Minister Rabin was assassinated by right-wing Israeli extremist, Yigal Amir, and a few months later,
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the Israeli security services assassinated Yiryah Ayash, an operational leader of Hamas. In June 1996, Benjamin Netanyahu, known Oslo Accord opponent, was elected Israeli Prime Minister. He opened a tunnel gate that prompted the Al-Aqsa tunnel riots. At the start of 1997, only a few IDF soldiers remained in Hebron for 500 Jewish settlers. When Netanyahu did not withdraw soldiers as stipulated by agreements made at the Wye River Plantation, he was replaced by Ehud Barak. Barak ‘s meeting with US President Bill Clinton and Arafat at Camp David did nothing to resolve the conflict due to the start of the Second Intifada. As Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s Arab League Summit declared an end to the violence from the Arab bloc, the Taba Talks between Israel and Palestine reached trouble in discussing the refugee problem stemming from the 1948 War. Ariel Sharon quickly replaced Barak thereafter. The Durban Conference in the summer of 2001 had many discussion of “Zionism is Racism”. The terror attacks on the World Trade Center instigated a ceasefire between Israel and Palestine. In retaliation to all the suicide bombings, Israel mounts Operation “Defensive Shield” in March 2002,
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arresting many PNA members and militarizing towns in the West Bank besieging the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. The siege ended in Mukata by May 2002 but built the Separation Wall inside the West Bank in June 2002. In response, US President George W. Bush called for Israeli withdrawal, Palestinian statehood, and PNA reform. In March of 2003, Qassam rocket fired from Gaza on Sderot bring Israeli reoccupation in parts of Gaza. Under international pressure, Arafat gives his seat to Mahmoud Abbas. During his short reign before his resignation, there are many failed and successful assassination attempts on Hamas members and a number of suicide bombings; Ahmed Qurei replaces but also leaves in a short amount of time to find another way to end the chaos of the PNA. The UN continued working along its roadmap for peace and called for the International Court of Justice to discuss the legality of the separation wall. Sharon designed a disengagement plan that received the approval of the US government but did not go through with the Likud Party. Following the death of IDF soldiers from their exploding APC, Israel set up Operation Rainbow to cut off arms movements along the Egypt-Gaza border and demolished homes and killed 40 Palestinian residents in Gaza. As Israel ignored the ruling of illegality of the separation wall, the hostilities continued with numbers being killed in the dozens for Israel and in the hundreds for Palestine.
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On November 11, 2004, Arafat died and Mahmoud Abbas headed the PNA following the interim. The Israeli cabinet approved disengagement in February 2005 but its implementation was delayed until August of that year due to suicide bombings and a failed summit meeting coordinated by Condoleeza Rice. Sharon had a stroke and Israeli was headed by Ehud Olmert and Hamas won an upset victory and took over the Palestinian legislation early in 2006. Shelling and Qassam rocket firing recontinue between the two until Cpr. Gilad Shalit is abducted by the Hamas in Gaza. As the begin Operation Summer Rain to retrieve him, Hezbollah instigates the Lebanon War by crossing their border into Israel and having a series of rocket strikes. It reaches a cease-fire by UN Security Council Resolution 1701. In June 2007, Hamas had a coup to remove the Fatah from Gaza after agreeing to share governmental control. Hamas Prime Minister Haniyeh insists he still has power after Abbas said the joint government was dissolved. Hamas opened fired on Fatah during the commemoration of Yasser Arafat’s death. Israel cuts off Gaza fuel supplies and Hamas causes international backlash against Israel by covertly shutting down a power plant. At the start of 2008, Hamas blasts holes in Gaza/Rafah barrier, allowing free movement between Egypt and Gaza; it is eventually sealed by Egypt. Operation Hot Water had Israel raid Gaza and kill over 100 Palestinians in February 2008.
UNCSW 12 ! Operation Cast Lead in December of that year was coordinated similarly and ended with the same results. New Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded to Obama’s June address in Cairo by respecting the creation of a Palestinian state but Israel would not stop building settlements in the West Bank. IDF and Turkish activists conflicted on a Free Gaza flotilla intercepted by the Israeli naval blockade. As violent clashes continued, Operation Pillar of Defense had Israel strike 1500 sites in Gaza killing over 100 and wounding over 800 in November 2012. In retaliation, Hamas fires rockets for the first time to Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. On November 29th, 2012, the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, Palestine is upgraded to non-observer member state status by the United Nations.
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Timeline ! • • • •
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November 2nd, 1917 – Balfour Declaration January 18th, 1919 – Paris Peace Conference opens June 28, 1919 – Treaty of Versailles July 24th, 1922 – British Mandate split into Palestine west of the River Jordan and Transjordan to the east of it October 12th, 1925 – Syrian uprising against the French Mandate May 23rd, 1926 – France proclaims Republic of Lebanon February 20th, 1928 – Britain recognizes Transjordan independence July 5th, 1928 – Sir John Chancellor becomes High Commissioner of Palestine October 21, 1930 – British passes White Paper to limit Jewish immigration in Palestine 1936-1939 – Arab Revolt May 17, 1939 – White Paper implemented to limit Jewish Immigration September 3rd, 1939 – Germany declares war on France and Britain, prompting WWII May 9th, 1942 – Biltmore Program convenes in New York November 6th, 1944 – Lord Moyne assassinated by LEHI underground March 22nd, 1945 – League of Arab States set up July 22nd, 1946 – Irgun Jewish
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underground blows up British HQ in Jerusalem November 29th, 1947 – UN Partition Resolution (GA 181) December 1st, 1947 – First Arab-Israeli War/Israel War for Independence begins April 9th, 1948 – Deir Yassin Massacre April 22nd, 1948 – Operation Misparayim launched by Hagannah May 13th, 1948 – Jaffa surrenders to Haganah May 15th, 1948 – British leave Palestine, Phase II of Israel War for Independence begins June 11th, 1948 – First truce begins, Egypt break truce on June 8th July 19th, 1948 - Second truce begins, Israel launches offensive on October 15th February-June 1949 – Israeli and Arab states form multiple armistices April 18th, 1954 – Nasser ousts Najib and becomes Prime Minister of Egypt July 1954 – Lavon Affair October 19th, 1956 – Suez Campaign November 18th, 1959 – National Water Carrier Project June 24th, 1963 – Ben Gurion resigned as Israeli Prime Minister May 1964 – Palestine Liberation Organization founded June 5th, 1967 – Six Day War begins April 23rd, 1969 – War of Attrition
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October 6th, 1973 – Yom Kippur War April 10th, 1974 – Yitzhak Rabin becomes Israeli Prime Minister May 31st, 1974 – Syria-Israel disengagement agreement over the Golan Heights November 13th, 1974 – Yasser Arafat speaks at UN General Assembly and Palestine is granted right to sovereignty as PLO is granted observer status; UN General Assembly Resolution 3379 equates Zionism with racism April 11th, 1981 – al-Aqsa Mosque Massacre June 6th, 1982 – Massive Israeli invasion of Lebanon to fight PLO May 17th, 1983 – Israel and Lebanon conclude an abortive non-belligerency agreement December 8th, 1987 - First Intifada November 15th, 1988 - PNC of PLO declare Palestine a state in absentia January 1991 – Operation Desert Storm April 16th, 1993 – First Hamas suicide bombing September 13th, 1993 – Oslo Declaration of Principles February 25th, 1994 – Tomb of Abraham mosque massacre
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September 28th, 1995 – Oslo Interim Agreement November 4th, 1995 – PM Yitzhak Rabin assassinated by Yigal Amer January 5th, 1996 – Yihyeh Ayash assassinated by Israeli security service September 1996 – al-Aqsa tunnel riots September 20th, 2000 – Second Intifada January 21st, 2001 – Taba talks begin between Israel and Palestine May 7th, 2001 – IDF naval commandos captured the Santorini August 31st, 2001 – Durban Conference September 11th, 2001 – Terror attacks on the World Trade Center June 23rd, 2002 – Separation Wall June 24th, 2002 – Controversial speech by US President George W. Bush April 29th, 2003 – Mahmoud Abbas appointed Palestinian Prime Minister November 24th, 2003 – Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon announced Disengagement Plan July 9th, 2004 – ICJ rules the Separation Wall as illegal February 20th, 2005 – Israeli cabinet approves plan for implementing disengagement
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June 21st, 2005 – Summit meeting coordinated by Condoleeza Rice ends in failure August 15th, 2005 – Disengagement begins and ends 9 days later June 25th, 2006 – Gilad Shalit abducted by Hamas June 27th, 2006 – Operation Summer Rains July 12th, 2006 – Lebanon War starts, ceasefire on August 14th June 15th, 2007 - Hamas Coup February 27th, 2008 - Operation Hot Water June 19th, 2008 – Israel-Hamas Truce in Gaza June 29th, 2008 – Israel-Hezbollah prisoner swap December 27th, 2008 – Operation Cast Lead June 14th, 2009 – Netanyahu’s response to President Obama’s June 4th address May 2010 – Gaza flotilla raid November 29th, 2012 – International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People; Palestine updated to nonobserver member state status for UN General Assembly
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Committee Role and Structure
This exceptional meeting of an IsraelPalestine Joint Cabinet Crisis is groundbreaking if for no other reason than because such a ! summit has never before occurred. The powers of this committee lie in the strengths of each of its individual members. Naturally, the political figures that will be gathered during this meeting are diverse, varied, and equally powerful. Each individual will have a slate of portfolio powers: unique and deeply personal abilities accorded based on position, rank, background, and experience. Your portfolio powers will allow you to enact change in areas of the committee that no other member has access to. As a whole, the committee will be able to take any sort of action theoretically feasible by its members. We encourage all manner of intelligence operations, international invasions, marriages, murders, technological warfare, religious proselytization, alliance formation, cooperation, and rational (or irrational) discourse. Committee operations will be conducted in accordance with standard parliamentary procedure. We do wish to warn delegates,
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however, that there will be relatively frequent deviations from this framework. All committee members should be prepared to break at regular intervals for prayer, feasting, bomb raids, and other similar events. While we fully intend to run this committee as faithfully as possible, you should all keep in mind that the Israel-Palestine conflict is fundamentally unpredictable. Be prepared to think on your feet and respond to all manner of curveballs. On a final administrative note, please do not forget about your position papers. While mildly laborious, these documents are essential for your chairs to explore your preliminary thoughts on the topic and determine in what direction to guide our cabinet. Position papers are intended to outline your unique views on the matters at hand. They should be approximately two single-spaced pages in length. If you would like feedback on your position paper, please send them to us no later than January 10th. In order to be eligible for an award at the close of debate, it is imperative that we have received your document no later than the opening of the first session.
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Committee Members ! ! 1.
Jibril Rajoub, Head of the Palestinian Football Federation and Palestinian Olympic Committee
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Ahmed Saadat, Secretary General of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
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Ziad Abu Amr, Deputy Prime Minister of the State of Palestine
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Aziz Duwaik, Speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council
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Yasser Abed Rabbo, Secretary-General of the PLO Executive Committee
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Farouk al-Kaddoumi, Secretary-General of Fatah Central Committee
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Salam Fayad, former Prime Minister of State of Palestine
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Salim Zanoun, Chairman of the Palestinian National Council
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Khaled Mashaal, Chairman of Hamas Political Bureau
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Mahmoud al-Zahar, Co-founder of Hamas
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Ismail Haniyeh, Senior Hamas leader (disputed Prime Minister of PNA)
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Maen Rashid Areikat, Chief of PLO Delegation in Washington, D.C.
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Riyad al-Maliki, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the State of Palestine
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Barakat al-Farra, Palestinian Ambassador to Cairo
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Mohammad Mustafa, Chairman and CEO of the Palestine Investment Fund
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Questions to Consider The Israel-Palestine conflict is such a contentious issue precisely because it is a multifaceted issue with fundamental disagreements stemming from political, historical, ethnic, linguistic, and religious identities. We encourage you to conduct thorough research on the history and current situation of the conflict and both to form your own opinions and forge your own questions about the Israel-Palestine dynamic. In the interim, however, we urge you to begin considering some of the following conundrums. • • • • • • • • • • • •
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What is the geographic future of this area of the Middle East? Is a one-state or a two-state solution more feasible, or are both of these ideas entirely impossible? What is the role of Israel in the Middle East, a state founded relatively recently following the end of the Second World War? To what degree is Zionism an acceptable doctrine and how did United Nations Resolution 3379 affect global perception? Why is Palestine currently governed by two separate governments and two distinct political parties and what is the future of Fatah and Hamas? How do religious ideologies change the nature of the Israel-Palestine conflict? How do the divides between Sunni and Shia Islam bring further nuance to the issue? What will become of Jerusalem - current capital of Israel and former capital of Palestine - and where will it fall in an eventual solution? Could Jerusalem ever be divided along eastern and western halves, or could it become international territory? Why is Hamas designated a terrorist organization by so many individual countries and nongovernmental organizations and is there any merit to this condemnation? How are neighboring states, including Lebanon, dealing with the ramifications of this crisis? What is the future of the hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees across the Middle East and how could they be successfully reintegrated into a new Palestinian state?
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Suggested Further Readings The Israel-Palestine conflict is fundamentally a question of clashing identities in the modern world. Historical, political, religious, ethnic, and linguistic idiosyncrasies are at the heart of this battle and only by further understanding these concepts can we hope to make any substantial progress on the issue. Award-winning Middle Eastern scholar Amin Maalouf is an obvious place to begin research on the complex themes of national identity, religious influences, and state formation. In the Name of Identity: Violence and the Need to Belong is one of the most comprehensive, digestible, and lucid works ever written on the underpinnings of this multifaceted crisis. We urge you to read this work, as its philosophical messages will undoubtedly play a large role in guiding the course of our weekend. For historical research, we urge you to consult academic journals and other print sources. In addition to the Palestine-Israel Journal, a nonpartisan quarterly published in Jerusalem,a number of other specialized publications exist to aid you in your search. The Journal of Palestine Studies, published by the University of California, is one of the foremost sources on the topic. The Foreign Policy Journal, Foreign Affairs, and the Israel Journal of Foreign Affairs all publish regular academic pieces on the conflict, from a variety of analytic and revisionist perspectives. Do keep bias - both inherent to the publication and on the part of the author - in mind as you gather your intelligence. With regards to the current situation, we strongly recommend consulting international news networks for the most up-to-date information. We have found networks such as CNN International, BBC, France 24, and Al-Jazeera English to offer the most neutral and informative voices. Each of these channels has reporters permanently stationed in the region to prove a constant stream of first-hand reporting and expert analysis. More importantly, live streaming of these networks is available on the internet, making this critical information accessible to the greater public at no cost to the viewer.
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NOTES http://israelipalestinian.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=000635 http://www.wrmea.org/component/content/article/366-special-topics/jews-for-justice/10407-earlyhistory-of-the-region.html http://mideastweb.org/ !
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