9th Emergency Special Session: The Situation in the Occupied Arab Territories (1982)

On 14 December 1981, Israel’s Knesset (Parliament) passed legislation to extend Israeli laws, jurisdiction and administration to the Golan Heights,¹ a region in the Syrian Arab Republic that Israel had occupied since 1976.² On 17 December 1981, both the SC and the GA declared this effective annexation of the territory as “null and void” and called on Israel to rescind it (S/RES/497; A/RES/36/226[B], para. 8). The SC also decided that in the event of non-compliance it would meet again to consider appropriate measures (S/RES/497, para. 4). Following non-compliance by Israel, in January 1982, Jordan proposed a draft SC resolution that would have condemned non-compliance and urged all Member States to consider applying “concrete and effective measures to nullify” the annexation and to cease assisting and cooperating with Israel (S/14832/Rev.1). It was vetoed by the US (ibid.). Given the lack of consensus among permanent members, on 28 January 1982, the SC requested (by a vote of 13-0-2) the convening of an emergency special session (S/RES/500).

The 9th emergency special session, “The situation in the occupied Arab territories”, was held from 29 January to 5 February 1982. On 5 February, the GA passed a resolution condemning Israel for “its failure to comply with Security Council resolution 497 (1981) and General Assembly resolution 36/22 B”, calling for the severance of “diplomatic, trade and cultural relations with Israel” and calling on Member States to refrain from “all dealings with Israel in order totally to isolate it in all fields” (A/ES-9/1, paras. 1, 12, 13). The GA declared that Israeli occupation of the Syrian Golan Heights constituted “an act of aggression” under Article 39 of the UN Charter and “a continuing threat to international peace and security”, and emphasized its demand to rescind the annexation (ibid., paras. 2, 6, 9). The resolution was adopted by vote of 86 to 21, with 34 abstentions.³