By: Ethan Lehman-Pace, Student Reporter*

After a day of fierce debate, in the afternoon of 19 November, the agenda was set for the convening of the Security Council. They have chosen to discuss the ongoing conflict in Israel and Palestine, meaning that it is prudent to present background on the issue. From the Balfour Declaration of 1917 to the declaration of Israeli Independence in 1948, the territory around Jerusalem has been contested heavily by Israelis and Palestineans. After decades of conflict, Palestineans have ended up settled largely in Gaza and the West Bank. Gaza’s government, Hamas, was last elected in 2006 & has ignited more tension in the region. The current wave of fighting ignited on 7 October when Hamas launched an attack on Israel, the aftershocks of which are still felt. This afternoon, a World Health Organization (WHO) investigation into the Al-Shifa hospital found fraught conditions, as well as an investigation that found the Israeli Government not liable for a bombing of a school. 

The International Press Delegation reached out to one of the delegates, Representative Heath Bana of Japan, to try and gather a perspective on the situation. Representative Bana said, “[Japan is] worried about the high toll that the [Israel-Palestine] conflict is having on civilians, and [Japan believes] that it will be fixed through diplomacy and seeking common ground.” The bombing of the Al-Shifa hospital horrified the Representative, they are skeptical about the investigation into the school bombing. When prompted, he shared that Japan launched its own investigation into the matter which revealed that the school explosions were not caused by misfired rockets, but more likely by bombs dropped from a plane of some sort. The Representative then mentioned how Gaza does not have planes. 

Should the Security Council find itself searching for topics again, here are some that have been brought up: the Russo-Ukrainian War, tensions in the South China Sea, the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh, the Israel-Palestine conflict and the crisis in Niger. The Russo-Ukrainian War comes with years of issues behind it, tensions bubbling up through the Crimean Crisis and the dissolution of free trade policies led to the invasion of Ukraine by Russia. The crisis in the South China Sea is less straightforward. Several countries in the region have competing claims to islands in the Sea, which is a haven for oil and gas reserves. In Nagorno-Karabakh, the present crisis is a reignition of the conflicts between Armenia and Azerbaijan from 2020 which is an extension of the conflicts that have gone on between the two for decades. In Niger, the country was left in a lurch after a coup d’état by the presidential guard. Since then, armed struggle has overtaken the nation.

_{The views and opinions expressed in this article were part of simulation of the United Nations held from 18 to 21 November 2023 and do not reflect the views and opinions of the American Model United Nations Conference, American Model United Nations International, LLC., *Oakland University, or the governing bodies of the states mentioned in the article.}