On January
3, 1919 Chaim Weitzman, who was the leader and representative of the
Zionist Organization on behalf of the Jewish people, met with Emir Feisal, who
represented the Arab Kingdom of Hedjaz. Included in an agreement that both
parties agreed upon was that the Jewish people should get the land west of theJordan River and that the old city
of Jerusalem would be under Jewish control.
The Paris Peace Conference began onJanuary
18, 1919 and lasted about six months in which new borders were decided
upon for parts of Europe and the Middle East and were given the
force of international law. The conference was made up of the victorious Allied
powers from World War I. The “Big Four” were made up of the Page United States,
Great Britain , France , and Italy . Lord Balfour
represented Britain . It was during the
summer of 1919 that Arab opposition began to be
voiced against the Feisal-Weitzman agreement. As a result that aspect of the
conference stalled and was never agreed upon. Nevertheless, Balfour issued the
following statement on August 11, 1919 :
“The four great powers are committed to Zionism. And Zionism be it right or wrong, good or bad, is rooted in age long traditions, in present needs in future hopes of far profounder import than the desire and prejudices of the 700,000 Arabs who now inhabit that ancient land.”3 TheParis Peace Conference ended without a final solution reached
concerning the status of Palestine , even though there was much discussion about the matter.
THESAN REMO CONFERENCE
A meeting to deal specifically with the unfinished business ofPalestine ,
which was to be seen as an extension of the Paris Peace Conference was commenced onApril 19, 1920 in San Remo , Italy (confirmed by the 1920 Treaty of Sevres). It was attended by
the four Principal Allied Powers of World War I who were represented by the
prime ministers of Britain (David Lloyd George), France (Alexander Millerand) and Italy (Francesco Nitti) and by Japan 's Ambassador K. Matsui.
The San Remo Resolution adopted onApril 25, 1920 incorporated the Balfour Declaration of 1917 issued by the
British government. The San Remo resolution and Article 22 of the Covenant of the League of Nations , which was adopted at the Paris Peace Conference on April 28, 1919 , were the basic documents upon which the British Mandate for
the stewardship of Palestine was constructed. It was at San Remo that the Balfour Declaration went from being just a statement
of British foreign policy to international law.
The British Mandate was fully implemented upon approval by the Council of theLeague of Nations on September 22, 1922 . However, when the parties left San Remo in April 1919 the future state of Israel was to be made up of what now
constitutes theKingdom of Jordan , as well as all the land West of the Jordan River . After September 22, 1922 what is now the Kingdom of Jordan was taken away from Palestine and became another Arab nation. This was the beginning of the
trend still operative today that Israel needs to give up more land in order to be promised peace. The
reality is that every time Israel gives up land, she experiences even less peace.
parties agreed upon was that the Jewish people should get the land west of the
The Paris Peace Conference began on
“The four great powers are committed to Zionism. And Zionism be it right or wrong, good or bad, is rooted in age long traditions, in present needs in future hopes of far profounder import than the desire and prejudices of the 700,000 Arabs who now inhabit that ancient land.”3 The
THE
A meeting to deal specifically with the unfinished business of
which was to be seen as an extension of the Paris Peace Conference was commenced on
The San Remo Resolution adopted on
The British Mandate was fully implemented upon approval by the Council of the
constitutes the
Today over half of Israel 's population are Jewish families forced and expelled
from Arab countries and their children and grandchildren.
The Audacity of the Arab-Palestinians
and the Arab countries in demanding territory from the Jewish people in
Palestine after they persecuted and expelled over a million Jewish families and
their children who have lived in Arab land for over 2,400 years and after they
confiscated all their assets and Real estate property 5-6 times the size of
Israel (120,440 sq. km. - 75,000 sq. mi.), valued in the trillions of dollars.
There was also Jewish property and land (totaling about 60,000 sq. km.) in Jordan , Gaza and
across the Golan Heights under Syria 's control.
Now the Arab nations are
demanding more land and more compensation.
The Arab countries have forcefully
chased the million Jewish families and their children and now they want to
chase them away again, from their own historical land.
The Jewish people have
suffered enough in the Diaspora for the past 2,500 years. It is time for the
Jewish people to live as free people in their own land without violence and
terror.
It is time to consider that
the only alternative is a population transfer of the Arab-Palestinians to the
territories the Arab countries confiscated from the Jewish people and settle
this dispute once and for all. Many Arab leaders had suggested these solutions
over the years.
YJ Draiman
As Professor Stephen Schwebel, former judge on the
Hague 's International Court of Justice notes:
The Arab-Palestinian claim to sovereignty over eastJerusalem
under the principle of self-determination of peoples cannot supersede the
Jewish right to self-determination in Jerusalem .
While Arabs constituted an ethnic majority only in the artificial entity of
"East Jerusalem " created by Jordan 's
illegal division of the city, the armistice lines forming this artificial
entity were never intended to determine the borders of, or political
sovereignty over, the city. Moreover, Jews constituted the majority ethnic
group in unified Jerusalem both in
the century before Jordan 's
invasion, and since 1967 (the exception being during Jordan 's
illegal occupation).
Sir Elihu Lauterpacht, an international legal expert, scholar and director emeritus of the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law at theUniversity
of Cambridge , details the legal
justification for Israel 's
sovereignty in east Jerusalem .
According to the scholar, "Jordan's occupation of the Old City–and indeed
of the whole of the area west of the Jordan river entirely lacked legal
justification" and was simply a "de facto occupation protected by the
Armistice Agreement." This occupation ended as a result of "legitimate
measures" of self defense by Israel ,
thereby opening the way for Israel
as "a lawful occupant" to fill a sovereignty vacuum left by Britain 's
withdrawal from the territory in 1948.
furthermore:
A state acting in lawful exercise of its right of self-defense may seize and occupy foreign territory as long as such seizure and occupation are necessary to its self-defense......Where the prior holder of territory had seized that territory unlawfully, the state which subsequently takes that territory in the lawful exercise of self-defense has, against that prior holder, better title.
As Schwebel explains, "Jordan 's
seizure [in 1948] and subsequent annexation of the West Bank
and the old city of Jerusalem were
unlawful," arising as they did from an aggressive act. Jordan
therefore had no valid title to east Jerusalem .
When Jordanian forces attacked Jerusalem
in 1967, Israeli forces, acting in self defense, repelled Jordanian forces from
territory Jordan
was illegitimately occupying. Schwebel maintains that in comparison to Jordan ,
"Israeli title in old (east) Jerusalem
is superior." And in comparison to the UN, which never asserted
sovereignty over Jerusalem and
allowed its recommendation of a corpus separatum to lapse and die, he sees Israel 's
claim to Jerusalem as similarly superior.
The Arab-Palestinian claim to sovereignty over east
Sir Elihu Lauterpacht, an international legal expert, scholar and director emeritus of the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law at the
furthermore:
A state acting in lawful exercise of its right of self-defense may seize and occupy foreign territory as long as such seizure and occupation are necessary to its self-defense......Where the prior holder of territory had seized that territory unlawfully, the state which subsequently takes that territory in the lawful exercise of self-defense has, against that prior holder, better title.
As Schwebel explains, "
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