Sham No. 3 – The state of Israel is a properly constituted UN member
The entity of Israel was admitted into the United Nations in May 1949, a year after it declared itself a state in May 1948.
The UN General Assembly resolution by which it was admitted was Resolution 273 of 11 May 1949.
There is a paragraph in that resolution that recalls two earlier resolutions, both prior to Israel being admitted:
- Resolution 181 of November 1947 – the UN partition plan that partitioned historic Palestine into a portion for the Jewish state (56%) and a portion for a proposed Arab state in Palestine (43%)
- Resolution 194 of December 1948 – which recognised Palestinian refugees’ right of return to their homes (from which many had been expelled by Zionist Jewish forces, or fled during the 1947-49 Arab-Israeli war), and the right to compensation for those choosing not to return and for lost or damaged property.
These prior resolutions were ‘recalled’ for Israel to acknowledge and respect as part of its admission to the UN, even if they were not made into express legal conditions.
Israel’s assurances of cooperation regarding those prior resolutions were clearly important in securing support for its admission.
It would be fair to say that without such adequate assurances, Israel’s admission to the UN would have faced much greater opposition, possibly even failure to secure the required majority.
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What has happened since those forgotten origins?
Israel has never lived up to its 1949 assurances and has never shown itself to take seriously the idea of two states, whose most authoritative early expression was in Resolution 181. (We leave aside here the merits or demerits of a two-state or one-state or some other solution.)
On the contrary, immediately after Resolution 181 in November 1947, before Israel even declared itself a state, Zionist militias and paramilitary forces (aka terrorists) embarked on the ethnic cleansing of Palestine.
By 1949, 750,000 indigenous Palestinians had been displaced in what became the Nakba or catastrophe.
Through military force, violence and war, Israel expanded beyond the 56% allocated to the proposed Jewish state under Resolution 181, eventually controlling about 78% of British Mandate Palestine. The remaining 22% comprised the West Bank and Gaza under Jordanian and Egyptian control.
This was the territorial reality when Israel was admitted to the UN in May 1949.
Subsequent decades have demonstrated how Israel has worked systematically to prevent the emergence of a viable Palestinian state within the remaining 22%.
That prevention has been through settlement expansion, annexation, fragmentation, movement restrictions and the separation of Gaza from the West Bank.
This runs contrary to the Resolution 181 partition plan and the expectations of Resolution 273 at the point of Israel’s admission to the UN. Another reason why Israel is a sham.
Resolution 181 was already a bad thing as it constituted a part of the steps in the dispossession of the Palestinians.
Israel’s arrogance has been such that it did not even bother with the resolution, bad though it already was. With typical impunity, it has continued to forcibly displace indigenous Palestinians.
This forced appropriation continues today in the West Bank, part of that remaining 22%, at rates described by the UN and the EU as a major acceleration.
Check out these references:
- OHCHR, “Israel ramps up settlement and annexation in West Bank with dire human rights consequences”, 18 March 2025
- OHCHR, “Israel’s settlement expansion drives mass displacement in West Bank”, 17 March 2026
- EU office of the EU representative, 2024 Report on Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, 14 August 2025
At the same time, it has kept Gaza as the crucible of suffering. That suffering – depicted in 64,537 videos and 17,905 photos – can be viewed here. But brace yourself first.
Needless to say, Israel has not batted an eyelid at Resolution 194, especially Clause 11 on the right of return of Palestinian refugees. Yet a further reason why Israel is a sham.
Instead of cooperating to implement Resolution 194 as part of its original admission to the UN, Israel went on to occupy the rest of Palestine – the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Gaza – through the Six Day War in 1967.
This is an occupation declared unlawful by the UN General Assembly, which demanded that Israel end its “unlawful presence” in the occupied Palestinian territory and withdraw its military forces, following the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice in July 2024.
In fact, the military occupation of the occupied Palestinian territories in 1967 was already deemed inadmissible in that same year. That was through UN Security Council Resolution 242 of November 1967, which affirmed “the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war”. It too required the “withdrawal of Israel armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict [the 1967 Six Day War]”.
Again, the above have been disregarded by Israel. With the exception of its return of Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula in 1982, Israel continues its unlawful presence in the rest of the territories occupied during the 1967 war.
And today, it pushes into Lebanon on the pretext of defending itself and foments war on Iran.
Finally, Resolution 273, which admitted Israel to the UN. noted the declaration by the state of Israel that it “unreservedly accepts the obligations of the United Nations Charter and undertakes to honour them from the day when it becomes a Member of the United Nations” [emphasis mine].
Yet, from its inception as a state, Israel has accumulated a record of coercive belligerence.
It has repeatedly shown little sincerity in settling disputes by peaceful means.
It seems to thrive on perpetual war and violence: striking and assassinating negotiating counterparts, bombing states during diplomatic efforts, and repeatedly violating ceasefires it had agreed to.
None of these accord with the UN Charter obligations that Israel undertook to honour from the day it became a member of the UN.
There are numerous other UN resolutions and international legal obligations that Israel has routinely disregarded. But the examples above are enough to show that the pattern was present from the start.
Such is the sham of the entity of Israel.
The views expressed in Aliran's media statements and the NGO statements we have endorsed reflect Aliran's official stand. Views and opinions expressed in other pieces published here do not necessarily reflect Aliran's official position.
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