CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1. Background of the Study
The United Nations is a world governing international organization with monumental influences in every continent of the world. It has the legally recognized power to oversee treaties and relations amongst member nations and amongst other subjects of international law (private individuals, non-governmental organizations, etc.) in the international community; it as well has the power to sanction erring nations in the international community, while trying to maintain global peace and cooperation as its central aim of existence (Benson, 2017). According to the UN official website (United Nations, 2019), the United Nations is an international organization founded in 1945 after the second world war by 51 countries committed to maintain international peace and security. After the dreadful events of the 2nd world war, the United Nations was set up to ensure world peace and to ensure that such an experience never repeats itself again, in world history. The central objective of the United Nations is the achievement of ‘international or universal peace’, as stated in Article 1 (paragraphs 1 and 2) of ‘the Charter of the United Nations’.
Undoubtedly, one can recognize the fact that the pivotal aim of the UN is the maintenance of world peace. The United Nations achieves this by means of different strategies or measures like signing and supervision of treaties, trade relations and even sports (Basu, 2018). These diverse strategies or measures are collectively known to be ‘Initiative for Global peace’, in which this present study will shed more light on extensively in the next chapter of the study. The main organ of the United Nations responsible for the maintenance of world peace is the United Nations Security Council. The United Nations Security Council is the main organ that is saddled with the responsibility of maintaining and enforcing of world peace (in terms of suppressing conflicts, adopting various methods to dispute resolution, checkmating dictatorial government and to ensure that hungry warlords are stopped from waging wars and conquering territories that belongs to other nations) (Shaw, 2014).
The United Nations Security Council is as well the organ that is principally responsible for the planning and drafting of the different plans and measures on how to keep and maintain world peace. Thus, these strategies and measures when originated from the UNSC are referred to as “United Nations Security Council’s Initiative (Strategy) for World Peace”. These initiatives and strategies have gone through different stages in the past years; it has taken different approaches and focuses over the years.
Despite several conferences, seminars and workshops on peace-making across the world, recently the world experienced an outbreak of violence between Israeli and Palestinian which started on May 10th, 2021. The violence was triggered on May 6th, 2021, when Palestinians started protests in East Jerusalem over an expected decision of the Supreme Court of Israel on the eviction of six (6) Palestinian families in Sheikh Jarrah (Frykberg, 2021). However, under international law, the area, effectively annexed by Israel, is a part of the occupied Palestinian territories. Israel applies its laws there. And on 7th May, 2021, according to Israel's Channel 12, Palestinians started throwing stones at the Israeli police forces, who afterward stormed the compound of the Al-Aqsa Mosque using tear gas, rubber bullets and stun grenades (Kingsley & Kershner, 2021). The crisis prompted protests around the world and reactions from world leaders.
In one of the reports, as at May 10th, about 250 Palestinians had been injured during police operations against what started as peaceful protests in East Jerusalem. After then, the Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist movement that governs Gaza (Holmes & Beaumont, 2021), started firing rockets at Israel and Israel mounted retaliatory airstrikes, which eventually turned out to be much bloodier (Boxerman, 2021). According to the Health Ministry in Gaza, he claimed that 830 Palestinians were injured and 119 killed, along with 31 children, due to the Israeli aerial and artillery bombardment. During the same period, nine Israelis, plus a child were reported to have been killed and over 400 people injured in Hamas rocket attacks (Boxerman, 2021). Some of the worst attacks took place in Lod/Al-Lid. On 12 May, Israeli ultra-nationalists attacked Al-Lid’s Al-Omari mosque ahead of the curfew, which led the mayor, Yair Revivo, to declare a state of civil war.
In the Gaza Strip, Israeli strikes had done a lot of damages to buildings and civil infrastructure, bringing down several apartment and office towers and leveling government buildings, service facilities such as schools and banks, homes and security compounds, including several police stations (Goldman, Jabari, & Smith, 2021). As of 13 May, Hamas had fired over 2,000 rockets and mortars at Israel (a number of which misfired, and most of which Israel intercepted with its Iron Dome air defense system, but some of which landed in Tel Aviv and other urban areas); and Israel had carried out hundreds of air and artillery strikes. Hamas’s firepower, both in terms of number of rockets and their reach, far surpasses earlier escalations (Palmer, 2012), and Israeli retaliation has been swift and devastating, making this episode’s destruction more comparable to the four earlier Gaza wars experienced in 2006, 2008-2009, 2012 and 2014, than any of the flare-ups in between.
Without doubt, there have been various outcries by the citizens of both countries for long lasting peace from the international community. Thus, it is therefore necessary to carry out this study to examine the role UN played in bring resolution to Israeli and Gaza violence and to find out the strategies or initiatives adopted by the United Nations to reach a resolution between the parties involved in the violence, through the lens of the United Nations Security Council’s initiatives for Global peace.
1.2. Statement of the Problem
Peace is an essential element for the growth and development of many countries across the world. A country with peace experiences growth and development in all sectors, while a country with no peace experiences war, violence and crime related activities (Lederach, 2014). The United Nations is a world governing international organization with monumental influences in every continent of the world, and also has the power to sanction erring nations in the international community, while trying to maintain global peace and cooperation as its central aim of existence. In order to the ensure peace across the world, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) was created under the United Nations which has the basic responsibility for the maintenance of global peace and security.
However, despite the establishment of this unit by the United Nations and other measures put in place to ensure global peace. Recently, there was a violence outbreak between Israeli and Gaza which led to massive destruction of lives and properties. Almost all cities in both states had a taste of the May 2021 violence that erupted which led to social disorder and instability. According to the New York Times (2021), over a thousand people were affected in the violence and billions worth of properties were destroyed. It was observed that the UN Security Council failed repeatedly to issue a statement calling for calm between both countries.
Despite the initial failure of the United Nations Security Council in bringing peace to both countries, this therefore led the researcher to ask what role did the United Nations played in ensuring peace in both countries, to identify the root cause of the violence between Israel and Gaza, and to identify the strategies and initiatives adopted by the UN to bring resolution between both countries.
1.3. Research Objectives
The general objective of this study is to examine the impact of the UN in peace resolution in conflicting states, using Israel and Palestinian (Gaza). The specific objectives will be to:
- identify the root cause of the May 2021 violence between Israel and Gaza.
- examine the role of the UN in ensuring conflict resolution in Israel and Gaza
- determine the strategies and initiatives adopted by the UN to bring resolution in Israel and Gaza.
- find out the social implications of the violence between Israel and Gaza on both countries
1.4. Research Questions
The following research questions are posed for the study.
- What is the root cause of the May 2021 violence between Israel and Gaza?
- What is the role of the UN in ensuring conflict resolution in Israel and Gaza?
- What are the strategies and initiatives adopted by the UN to bring resolution in Israel and Gaza?
- What are the social implications of the violence between Israel and Gaza on both countries?
1.5. Significance of the Study
The findings of this research will be useful in the promotion of peace and harmony among countries of the world, especially among conflicting states. In addition, the finding of this study will provide more understanding to the people and how it could increase the level of peace building in their countries.
Furthermore, the finding of this study will help proffer credible and workable solutions to this prolonged problem of violence in Israel and Gaza through the provisions and guidelines provided by the United Nations Security council.
Besides, the finding of this study will help address whether international intervention like the United Nations is a feasible and practical approach to adopt in situations like Israel and Gaza violence.
The finding of this study will be beneficial to citizens of countries to identify the problems leading to conflict and violence in their countries.
Lastly, the finding of this study will be beneficial to future researchers who would like to carry out future research in relation to the topic.
1.6. Scope of the Study
This study focused on the impact of the UN in peace resolution in conflicting states, using Israel and Palestinian (Gaza). This geographical location for the study is focused on two countries in the Asian continent, which are Israel and Gaza respectively. The reason for the choice of these two countries was because recently there was violence and conflict which claimed the lives of many and left infrastructures destroyed, leading to social disorder and instability. Thus, the study seeks to examine how the role of the UN in ensuring resolution in both countries. The timeframe for the study was 2010-2021.
1.7. Methodology of the Study
The methodology of this study will be qualitative in nature and data will be gathered using the secondary source through journals, reports, articles, newspapers, treaties, textbooks and various statutes which would be obtained from online sources. The issue under discussion is a global menace which cuts across every country in the world, although there have been few or little literatures on the subject matter, this shall be referred to in discussing the topic at hand.
1.8. Operational Definition of Terms
Civil war: a war fought by different groups of people living in the same country.
Violence: is an act of aggression that brings about inflicting injury on persons, destruction of properties and causing pandemonium within a given social gathering, community or society (Bamgbose, 2013).
Peace: refers to the process of ensuring peace in a given area and at a given time.
United Nations (UN): is an international organization founded in 1945 after the second world war by 51 countries committed to maintain international peace and security’ (United Nations, 2019).
United Nations Security Council (UNSC): is one of the principle organs of the UN, charged with the duty of maintaining Global peace and Security (Shaw, 2014).
Global Peace: is defined as ensuring and maintaining peace all over the world (Enuka, 2017).
1.9. Organization of the Study
This work is organized into five chapters. Chapter one which is the general introduction contains the background to the study, problem statement, objectives, research questions, significance of the study, scope of the study and the operational definition of terms. Chapter two presents the appraisal of literature and it comprises of the conceptual and theoretical framework. Chapter three covers the factors leading to the Israel and Gaza violence. Chapter four provides the answer to the various research questions formulated in the study. Chapter five provides the summary, conclusions and recommendations for the study.
