April 2025

CIE has compiled the following list of books and articles, including some available on our website, to guide understanding of Israel’s relations with the United Nations. ‘’

Books

Amitzur Ilan. Bernadotte in Palestine, 1948. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1989.

Anan, Kofi. Interventions. New York: Penguin Press, 2012.

Bailey, Sydney D. The Making of Resolution 242. Dordrecht: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 1985.

Bar-Yaacov, Nomi. The Israeli-Syrian Armistice Problems of Implementation 1949-1966. Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 1967.

Beker, Avi. The United Nations and Israel. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 1988.

Buehrig, Edward H. The UN and the Palestinian Refugees: A Study in Nonterritorial Administration. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1971.

Caradon, Lord (Baron Hugh Foot), Arthur J. Goldberg, Mohamed H. El-Zayyat, Abba Eban and Joseph J. Sisco. U.N. Security Council Resolution 242: A Case Study in Diplomatic Ambiguity. Washington: Georgetown University, 1981.

Comay, Michael. U.N. Peacekeeping in the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 1948-1975: An Israeli Critique. Jerusalem: Hebrew University, 1976.

De Blois, Matthijs, and Andrew Tucker. Israel on Trial: How International Law Is Being Misused to Delegitimize the State of Israel. The Hague: The Hague Initiative for International Cooperation, 2018.

Elath, Eliahu. Zionism at the UN: A Diary of the First Days. New York: Jewish Publication Society, 1976.

Evatt, Herbert V. The Task of Nations. Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1949.

Freedman, Rosa. Failing to Protect: The UN and the Politicization of Human Rights. London: Hurst & Co., 2014.

García-Granados, Jorge. The Birth of Israel. New York: Alfred A Knopf, 1949.

Israeli Mission to the United Nations. Israel Before the Security Council May 15-July 15, 1948: A Record of Fidelity to the United Nations. New York: Israeli Mission, 1948.

Jackson, Elmore. Middle East Mission: The Story of a Major Bid for Peace in the Time of Nasser and Ben-Gurion. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1983.

Lindsay, James G. Fixing UNRWA: Repairing the UN’s Troubled System of Aid to Palestinian Refugees. Washington: Washington Institute for Near East Policy, 2009.

Pelcovits, Nathan. The Long Armistice: UN Peacekeeping and the Arab-Israeli Conflict 1948-1960. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1993.

Pelcovits, Nathan. Peacekeeping on Arab-Israeli Fronts: Lessons From the Sinai and Lebanon. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1984.

Peretz, Don. Israel and the Palestine Arabs. Washington: Middle East Institute, 1958.

Persson, Sune O. Mediation and Assassination: Count Bernadotte’s Mission to Palestine in 1948. London: Ithaca Press, 1979.

Pogany, Istvan S. The Security Council and the Arab-Israeli Conflict. England: Gower Publishing, 1984.

Rikhye, Indar Jit. The Sinai Blunder: Withdrawal of the United Nations Emergency Force Leading to the Six-Day War of June 1967. London: Frank Cass and Co., 1980.

Rivlin, Benjamin (ed.). Ralph Bunche: The Man and His Times. New York: Holmes and Meier, 1990.

Romirowsky, Asaf, and Alexander H. Joffe. Religion, Politics, and the Origins of Palestine Refugee Relief. Palgrave Macmillan, 2013.

Schoenberg, Harris O. The World Conference Against Racism: The Adoption and Repeal of the Z=R Resolution and the Implications for UN Reform. Wayne: Center for U.N. Reform Education, 2001.

Shari, Regina (ed.). United Nations Resolutions on Palestine and the Arab-Israeli Conflict, Volume Two, 1975-1981. Washington: Institute for Palestine Studies, 1981.

Siilasvuo, Ensio. In the Service of Peace in the Middle East, 1976-1979. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1993.

Simpson, Michael (ed.). United Nations Resolutions on Palestine and the Arab-Israeli Conflict. Volume Three, 1982-1986. Washington: Institute for Palestine Studies, 1988.

Stjernfelt, Bertil. The Sinai Peace Front: UN Peacekeeping Operations in the Middle East, 1973-1980. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1992.

Tomeh, George (ed.). United Nations Resolutions on Palestine and the Arab-Israeli Conflict, Volume One, 1947-1974. Washington: Institute for Palestine Studies, 1975.

United Nations. The Blue Helmets: A Review of United Nations Peace-Keeping. Third edition. New York: United Nations, 1996.

Washington Institute for Near East Policy (ed.). UN Security Council Resolution 242: The Building Block of Peace Making. Washington: Washington Institute, 1993

Articles

Al-Husseini, Jalal, “UNRWA and the Palestinian Nation-Building Process,” Institute for Palestine Studies 29, No. 2 (2000): 51-64.

Amidror, Yaacov, “Lessons of the UNESCO Vote,” Begin-Sadat Center, November 2, 2016.

Barak, Eitan, “Caught in the Middle: The United Nations Emergency Force, Israel, and the 1960 ‘Rotem Crisis,.’” Diplomacy and Statecraft 17. No. 2 (2006): 393-414.

Bartholomeusz, Lance, “The Mandate of UNRWA at Sixty,” Refugee Survey Quarterly 28, Nos. 2-3 (2009): 452-474.

Baruch, Pnina Sharvit, “Security Council Resolution 2334: The Legal Significance,” Institute for National Security Studies, December 30, 2016.

Becker, R.N., et al., “The Preoccupation of the United Nations With Israel: Evidence and Theory,” The Review of International Organizations 10, No. 4 (December 2015): 413-437.

Ben-Dror, Elad, and Asaf Ziedler, “Israel, Jordan, and Their Efforts to Frustrate the United Nations Resolutions to Internationalize Jerusalem,” Diplomacy and Statecraft 26 (2015): 636-658.

Bocco, Ricardo, “UNRWA and the Palestinian Refugees: A History Within History,” Refugee Survey Quarterly 28, Nos. 2-3 (2009): 229-252.

Bligh, Alexander, “The United Nations Emergency Force (UNEF), 1956-67: Past Experience, Current Lessons,” Middle Eastern Studies 50, No. 5 (2014): 796-809.

Boutros-Ghali, Boutros, “Commentary,” The Middle East Journal 49, No. 4 (1995): 569.

Dajani, Omar M., “Forty Years Without Resolve: Tracing the Influence of Security Council Resolution 242 on the Middle East Peace Process,” Institute for Palestine Studies 37, No. 1 (2007): 24-38.

Elon, Efrat, “Israel, UNIFIL II, the UN, and the International Community,” Palestine-Israel Journal of Politics, Economics, and Culture 13, No. 4 (2007): 32-39.

Erakat, Noura, “The UN Statehood Bid: Palestine’s Flirtation With Multilateralism,” in Karim Makdisi and Vijay Prashad (eds.), Land of Blue Helmets: The United Nations and the Arab World, Oakland, University of California Press (2017): 95-114.

Eran, Oded, “(UN) 1701: A Worthless Security Council Resolution?” Military and Strategic Affairs 1, No. 2 (October 2009).

Farah, Randa, “UNRWA: Through the Eyes of Its Refugee Employees in Jordan,” Refugee Survey Quarterly 28, Nos. 2-3 (2009): 389-411.

Feldman, Ilana, “Ad Hoc Humanity: UN Peacekeeping and the Limits of International Community in Gaza,” American Anthropologist 112, No. 3 (2010): 416-429.

Forsythe, David P., “UNRWA, the Palestinian Refugees, and World Politics: 1949-1969,” International Organization 25, No. 1 (1971): 26-45.

Friesel, Ofra, “Equating Zionism With Racism: The 1965 Precedent,” American Jewish History 97, No. 3 (2013): 283-313.

Geronik, Arie, “Israel-UN Relations: Three Phases and Three Questions,” Israel Studies 25, No. 1 (Spring 2020): 73-98.

Goldberg, Arthur J., “What Resolution 242 Really Said,” American Foreign Policy Interests 33, No. 1 (2011): 41-46.

Gottheil, Fred M., “UNRWA and Moral Hazard,” Middle Eastern Studies 42, No. 3 (2006): 409-421.

Hammarskjold, Dag, “The Middle East,” Vital Speeches of the Day 24, No. 22 (1958): 674.

Helen-Engdal, Marte, Jørgen Jensehaugen and Hilde Henriksen Waage, “Finishing the Enterprise: Israel’s Admission to the United Nations,” The International History Review 35, No. 3 (2013): 465-485.

Hurewitz, J.C., “Ralph Bunche as UN Acting Mediator: The Opening Phase,” in Benjamin Rivlin (ed.), Ralph Bunche: The Man and His Times, New York: Holmes and Meier (1990): 157-176.

Hurewitz, J.C., “The United Nations Conciliation Commission for Palestine: Establishment and Definition of Functions,” International Organization 7, No. 4 (1953): 482-497.

Jackson, Elmore, “The Developing Role of the Secretary-General,” International Organization 11, No. 3 (1957): 431-445.

Joffe, Alexander H., “UNRWA Resists Resettlement,” Middle East Quarterly 19 (2012): 11-25.

Khalid, Kartini Aboo Talib, and Dorcus Luwiza Mwango, “The Failure of the United Nations in Resolving the Palestine-Israel Conflict: A Neorealist Perspective,” Malaysia Journal of Society and Space 11, No. 2 (2015): 95-106.

Khalidi, Raja, “The United Nations, Palestine, Liberation, and Development,” in Karim Makdisi and Vijay Prashad (eds.), Land of Blue Helmets: The United Nations and the Arab World, Oakland, University of California Press (2017): 409-429.

Kolinsky, Martin, “The Efforts of the Truman Administration to Resolve the Arab-Israeli Conflict,” Middle Eastern Studies 20 (1984): 81-94.

Kramer, Martin, “The May 1948 Vote That Made the State of Israel,” Mosaic, April 2, 2018.

Kushner, Arlene, “UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, a Report,” Israel Resource News Agency, Jerusalem (2003).

Lapidoth, Ruth, “The Misleading Interpretation of UN Security Council Resolution 242 (1967),” Jewish Political Studies Review 23, Nos. 3-4 (2011): 7-17.

Lapidoth, Ruth, “Security Council Resolution 242: An Analyses of its Main Provisions,” Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs (1972): 15 pages.

Ma’oz, Moshe, “The UN Partition Resolution of 1947: Why Was It Not Implemented?” Palestine-Israel Journal of Politics, Economics, and Culture 9, No. 4 (2002): 15.

Makdisi, Karim, “Constructing Security Council Resolution 1701 for Lebanon in the Shadow of the ‘War on Terror,’” International Peacekeeping 18, No. 1 (2011): 4-20.

Marx, Emmanuel, and Nitza Nachmias, “Dilemmas of Prolonged Humanitarian Aid Operations: The Case of UNRWA (UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees),” Journal of Humanitarian Assistance (2004).

May, Clifford D., “Obama Throwing Israel to the U.N.’s Wolves,” The Washington Times, December 27, 2016.

Mork, Hulda K., “The Jarring Mission: A Study of the UN Peace Effort in the Middle East, 1967-1971,” master’s thesis, University of Oslo, spring 2007.

Morris, Benny, “The UN Partition Vote in November 1947 Was Important, but Not Crucial,” Mosaic, November 13, 2017.

Muravchik, Joshua, “The UN and Israel: A History of Discrimination,” World Affairs 176, No. 4 (2013): 35-46.

Nachmias, Nitza, “UNRWA Betrays Its Mission,” Middle East Quarterly 19, No. 4 (2012): 27-35.

Nachmias, Nitza, “The Impossible Peacekeeping Mission,” Peacekeeping and International Relations 25, No. 5 (1996): 14.

Nelson, Richard W., “Multinational Peacekeeping in the Middle East and the United Nations Model,” International Affairs 61, No. 1 (1984): 67-90.

Nossel, Suzanne, “Israel and UN Reform,” Dissent 52, No. 3 (2005): 23-28.

Oren, Michael B., “Ambivalent Adversaries: David Ben-Gurion and Israel vs. the United Nations and Dag Hammarskjold, 1956-57,” Sage Journals 27, No. 1 (1992): 89-127.

Perez de Cuellar, Javier, “Call for Middle East Negotiations,” United Nations Chronicle 27, No. 2 (1990).

Perlmutter, Amos, “Patrons in the Babylonian Captivity of Clients: UNRWA and World Politics,” International Organizations 25, No. 2 (1971): 306-308.

Ravndal, Ellen Jenny, “‘The First Major Test’: The UN Secretary-General and the Palestine Problem, 1947-9,” The International History Review 38, No. 1 (2016): 196-213.

Romirowsky, Asaf, and Nicole Brackman, “United Nations Agency Exposed as a Tool for Hamas,” Washington Examiner, August 30, 2014.

Rosenne, Shabtai, “Bunche at Rhodes: Diplomatic Negotiator,” in Benjamin Rivlin (ed.), Ralph Bunche: The Man and His Times, New York, Holmes and Meier (1990): 177-185.

Rosenne, Shabtai, “Israel and the United Nations: Changed Perspectives, 1945-1976,” The American Jewish Yearbook 78 (1978): 3-59.

Sachs, Natan, “What’s New and What’s Not in the U.N. Resolution on Israeli Settlements,” Brookings Institution, December 26, 2016.

Shafir, Gershon, “The Miscarriage of Peace: Israel, Egypt, the United States, and the ‘Jarring Plan’ in the Early 1970s,” Israel Studies Forum 21, No. 1 (2006): 3-26.

Shushan, Debra, “Palestine and Israel at the United Nations: Partition, Recognition, and Membership,” in Ian Shapiro and Joseph Lampert (eds.), Charter of the United Nations: Together With Scholarly Commentaries and Essential Historical Documents, Yale University Press (2014): 157-173.

Spiegel, Baruch, “Jerusalem’s Surprisingly Good Relations With UNRWA,” Middle East Quarterly 19, No. 4 (2012).

Stein, Kenneth W., “U.N. Security Council Resolution 242, 1967,” introduction, Center for Israel Education, April 2010.

Stein, Kenneth W., “U.N. Security Council Resolution 338, 1973,” introduction, Center for Israel Education, October 2019.

Stein, Kenneth W., “U.N. Security Council 1701, 2006,” introduction, Center for Israel Education, September 2024.

Takkenberg, Lex, “UNRWA and the Palestinian Refugees After Sixty Years: Some Reflections,” Refugee Survey Quarterly 2-3 (2009): 253-259.

Urquhart, Brian, “Ralph Bunche and the Development of UN Peacekeeping,” in Benjamin Rivlin (ed.), Ralph Bunche: The Man and His Times, New York, Holmes and Meier (1990): 186-210.

Waage, Hilde Henriksen, “The Winner Takes All: The 1949 Island of Rhodes Armistice Negotiations Revisited,” Middle East Journal 65, No. 2 (2011): 279-304.

Yihdego, Zeray, “The Gaza Mission: Implications for International Humanitarian Law and UN Fact-Finding,” Melbourne Journal of International Law 13, No. 1 (2012): 158-216.

Zartman, William, “The United Nations Response [Pre-1967 War],” in Richard B. Parker (ed.), The Six-Day War: A Retrospective, University Press of Florida (1996): 74-118.