The West Bank and East Jerusalem: Who has the better claim?
Let History guide judgement
(1) Following WW1 and the defeat of the Turks, the Ottoman Empire which spanned the Middle East for 400 years, was divided up by the British and French, and new countries were created, namely Iraq (British jurisdiction),and Syria and Lebanon (French jurisdiction).
The whole geographical area known as Palestine was designated to the Jews (British jurisdiction) in recognition of their historic connection to the land. It was legally confirmed by the San Remo Treaty and re-confirmed by the 1920 Treaty of Sevres.
In 1922, Churchill violated the treaty and awarded the land east of the Jordan river to the Hashemite dynasty, in recognition of the help it gave Britain in defeating the Turks. Abdullah became King of the newly created Trans-Jordan, which covered some 77% of historic Palestine.
In 1922, the 51 member states of The league of Nations unanimously ratified a document called “The Mandate for Palestine” which called for the Jewish national homeland to be RE-CREATED in Palestine in the area West of the Jordan river, and called for “close settlement” by Jews of this area , which also included Gaza and the Golan heights.
Jews were not allowed to settle on land east of the Jordan river.
The Arabs, in the main (most of whom were immigrants from Syria and Egypt) did not accept this and there were riots, and ethnic cleansing of Jews from areas such as Hebron in 1929.
The Mandate document specified that there should be religious and civil rights for the non-Jews in the future Jewish state, but not political rights.
When the league of Nations was superseded by the UN, the “Mandate for Palestine” was incorporated into Article 80 of the UN Charter, which, in the absence of any agreement to end hostilities, remains the legal status of the area to the present day.
There were many attempts to placate the Arabs, by whittling down the size of the future Jewish state, but were never accepted by them.
Finally, the UN, in 1947, proposed a partition of Palestine, giving the Jews a very small proportion of the original area.
The Jews accepted reluctantly (Jerusalem was excluded), while the Arabs rejected the proposal.
It was put to a vote in the UN in November 1947, and passed.(Resolution 181)
In the following May, on declaration of Israel’s statehood, 5 Arab armies attacked the fledgling state, but the new state survived (just!).
Then Trans-Jordan made a land-grab of the West Bank, and annexed it, in a move which was recognised only by Great Britain and Pakistan (but minus recognition of the annexation of Jerusalem). It became Jordan.
Egypt illegally annexed Gaza and Syria, ditto the Golan.
In 1967, Israel again won a defensive war against the combined armies of Egypt, Syria and Jordan, and by the time the ceasefire was called, had reached the Golan, the Jordan river and the Sinai peninsula up to the Nile.
Israel’s offer to withdraw totally to the armistice lines of 1948 (the so-called Green line) in return for peace was rejected out of hand at the Arab summit in Khartoum, which issued a statement known as the 3 NOs… no peace, no negotiation, no recognition.
Subsequently, Egypt made peace, in return for the Sinai in its entirety.
Jordan made peace, but gave up all claims to the West Bank, which was never legally theirs.
(2) The UN then passed Resolution 242, calling on Israel to withdraw from territories, deliberately omitting the definite article (the), in return for a cessation of hostilities from the Arab side, (which has never happened).
Israel started to re-settle some of the areas which had legally belonged to Jews before 1948, such as the Etzion bloc, near Jerusalem, for which Jews held the title deeds, and Hebron, in both instances from whence they had been driven out.
Interestingly, although the status of the WB remains legally part of the Jewish state, before any new settlement was formed, every Israeli government of whatever hue consulted with a specialist lawyer called Plia Albeck, to ensure that it was built on state land and not privately-owned land.
She was an expert in the field and consulted British and Ottoman law before sanctioning the building of every new settlement.
(3) There is also the legal precedent of land won in a victorious, defensive war.
In a landmark ruling, Judge Stephen Schwebel, one time head of the International Court of Justice, the court of the UN, ruled in 1970, that where a country had won territory in a defensive war, and that territory had previously been taken by force (ie, by Jordan), then the victor (ie.Israel) had the better title.
Indeed, following WW11, the Axis powers lost land that had been theirs, such as Germany losing the Sudetenland, and other lands which went to Poland.
There are many such examples, and there are never demands to return them.
The only exception seems to be Israel.
It’s also worth remembering that the reason that East Jerusalem is often called Arab East Jerusalem, is because in 1948, the Jews were ethnically cleansed from there.
The only time during 2,000 years that there were no Jews in the old city of Jerusalem, was between 1948 and 1967.
The oldest and holiest Jewish cemetery on Mount of Olives is in East Jerusalem, (3,000 years old) as is the Western Wall, so to call new Jewish suburbs in East Jerusalem, settlements, is absurd, and designed to undermine Jewish legitimacy there.
The reason why Western and other powerful nations perpetuate the myth of illegal settlements, when there are no such thing, is because it suits them— they need Arab oil and Arab/Muslim markets to trade with.
It’s expediency.
(4) The only people to have enjoyed sovereignty (countries called Judah and Israel) in the geographical area of Palestine were the Jews.
No independent country of Palestine ever existed— neither was there ever a Palestinian people— that is a myth.
The name “Palestine” was given by the Emperor Hadrian in AD 135, when he wanted to obliterate the names of Israel and Judah forever.
I might also mention that the Arab countries expelled over a million Jewish people, confiscated their assets, businesses, homes and Real Estate (120,000 sq. km. 46,000 sq. miles, which is five to six times the size of Israel Jordan
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