Topic: Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Territories
Country: Guatemala
Delegate Name: Bryce McBride
School: Forest Hills Central High School
Topic page: background guide and all position papers All Guatemala position papers GLIMUN 2013 committees
We, the Republic of Guatemala stand in the same position on the Israeli settlement problems as we had taken in the Egyptian uproar. It will not benefit us as a country if the issue is fixed, but for the sake of world peace it needs to be addressed. The inability to accept that countries do not have the tolerance for neighboring provinces to build within their boundaries in unacceptable to us.
This issue takes it's roots from the six-day war that began June 5th and ended June 10th. In this short war Egypt, Syria, Jordan, and Iraq contested with Israel in response to a surprise attack made by Israel to Egyptian airfields. The end result of the war was a decisive Israeli victory. This earned them the territories of the Gaza Strip, the Sinai Peninsula, the West Bank, and the Golan heights.
The ownership of these four territories were not, however, recognized as that of Israel. Israel still does not acknowledge this, and believes that they have the right to build whatever they desire in these territories. The disagreement here is not the only problem. The treatment of the people native to these lands are being mistreated by the Israel police that inhabit the area.
What we seek to improve here is to not to completely take the land from Israel to give to Egypt, Syria, Jordan, and Iraq. That is too drastic of a change as we see it will cause more problems then it will solve. What we will want to do, however, is to perhaps distribute a fraction of the land to the original owners and have Israel treat the natives I'm their settlements with much more respect.
