“Tyranny of the Veto”: PLO Diplomacy and the January 1976 United Nations Security Council Resolution

Abstract

ABSTRACT Scholars have long debated when the Palestinian Liberation Organisation [PLO] first accepted the international consensus on a two-state settlement as a resolution to the Israel-Palestine conflict. This analysis contributes to the debate by closely examining PLO diplomatic support for a draft United Nations [UN] Security Council resolution along the lines of the two-state consensus in January 1976, its passage prevented by an American veto. Drawing upon declassified documents in American, UN, and British archives, this analysis argues that the record of negotiations at the Security Council strongly indicates that by the mid-1970s, the PLO was ready to accept the terms of a two-state settlement, even as the United States and Israel persistently rejected a negotiated settlement inclusive of Palestinian self-determination.