A Tale of Two Cities: The Rhodes and Lausanne Conferences, 1949

“By January 1949, the United Nations had established two complementary tracks for promoting a peaceful resolution of the Palestine conflict. The “Rhodes track” was based upon Security Council (UNSC) Resolution 62 of 16 November 1948, which called upon the parties “to seek agreement forth- with, by negotiations conducted either directly or through the acting media- tor, with a view to the immediate establishment of [an] armistice. . . The second track, which would lead to Lausanne, took as its starting point General Assembly (UNGA) Resolution 194(11I) of 11 December 1948. Among the key issues addressed by this historic resolution was the need to end the suffering of the some 700,000 Palestinian refugees who had been expelled from or had fled their homes during the fighting of the previous year.”  Access to this essay that compares the relative successes of the two conferences can be obtained from JSTOR by clicking here.