Jewish Highlights in U.N. History

Jewish highlights in U.N. history:. * June 1945: U.N. Charter is signed with human rights provisions included, partly at the insistence of some American Jewish leaders. * Nov. 29, 1947: U.N. adopts plan to partition Palestine into Arab and Jewish states, with international trusteeship for Jerusalem. * Dec. 9, 1948: Genocide Convention adopted, making it a violation of international law to engage in mass murder. * Dec. 10, 1948: Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted. * May 11, 1949. U.N. votes to admit Israel in Resolution 273. * 1948 and 1949: A series of U.N.-brokred armistice agreements are signed in the wake of attacks on Israel by neighboring Arab states in which the United Nations did not intervene militarily. * 1956 and 1957: U.N. presses Israel to withdraw from the Sinai and the Gaza Strip. * May 19, 1967: U.N. Secretary- General U Thant orders withdrawal of U.N. troops from Sinai and Gaza at Egypt’s request and without consultation. * November 1967: Security Council adopts Resolution 242, affirming that a “just and lasting peace” in the Middle East must be based on Israeli withdrawal from territories as well as on the right of every state in the area to live in peace “within secure and recognized boundaries” agreed to by the parties. * October 1973: Security Council adopts Resolution 338, making 242 legally binding and ordering the parties to carry out its terms. * Nov. 13, 1974: Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat addresses the U.N. General Assembly and calls for the destruction of the State of Israel. * Summer 1975: U.N. Conference on Women, meeting in Mexico City, equates Zionism with racism, the first time this is done in any international forum. * Nov. 10, 1975: General Assembly passes Resolution 3379 equating Zionism with racism. * Dec. 16, 1991: General Assembly rescinds Zionism is racism resolution. * December 1993: The General Assembly agrees to establish post of high commissioner for human rights.