Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Netanyahu's reminder to the UN

Ze'ev Jabotinsky

I don't know what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will say during his speech to the United Nations General Assembly, but he will surely speak virtuosically. If he were to listen to my advice, I would tell him to base his speech at the U.N. on a clear reminder: Our the right to full sovereignty in what historical terms is known as "western Palestine" draws its authority from international law and decisions of the international community. Readers who are unfamiliar with the historical details might ask him or herself what right I am talking about.

Here is a brief explanation:

At the end of World War I, the Ottoman Empire renounced its sovereignty in the Middle East, including in the Land of Israel [Palestine]. The Allied powers that won the war gathered at the San Remo Conference in 1920 and decided to impose mandate rule on all territories relinquished by Turkey.

The League of Nations, which had been founded several months earlier, submitted a draft of a document to the conference called the "Mandate for Palestine," which ratified the mandate with a few alterations. The League of Nations unanimously approved the "Mandate for Palestine."

[It also confirmed the pledge contained in the Balfour Declaration concerning the establishment of a Jewish national home in Palestine and, among other things, put Palestine under British Mandatory rule.]

All 51 member states in the league voted in favor of the mandate. This is how the document became a part of international law and is valid until today. In the third paragraph, it states: "Whereas recognition has thereby been given to the historical connection of the Jewish people with Palestine and to the grounds for reconstituting their national home in that country."

This was the first time after 2,000 years that the international community recognized the existing right of the Jewish people to be sovereign in this land.

This decision has legal validity even today and it apparently cannot be changed unless we give up this right. The document protects the civil rights of all segments of the population, though there is no mention in it of the political rights of Arabs.

This is neither forgetfulness nor neglect. Maintaining proper proportionality was achieved by giving full political rights to Arabs in Syria, Lebanon and Iraq. In 1946, Jordan was established on 77 percent of the territory allocated to us in 1920.

The League of Nations was disbanded at the end of World War II and, in its place, the United Nations was formed, based on a charter that grants it authority. Article 80 of the charter expressly prohibits changes to decisions made with respect to areas mandated by the League of Nations.

It is worth reminding those attending the U.N. General Assembly this week that no U.N. decision, in the past or the future, can contradict our right to sovereignty in the western part of the Land of Israel, as stated in the "Mandate for Palestine" document that, as was previously mentioned, was unanimously approved by the League of Nations.

In a speech recorded by my grandfather, Ze'ev Jabotinsky, in 1937, he summed up the idea of preserving this right in two sentences: "No Christian hand will not touch our right; but first of all, no Hebrew hand will not touch our right - which is eternal and perfect and for which there is no renunciation. There can be no forfeiture, no shortcut to Zion, and Zion in its entirety belongs to us."

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