Jewish resettlement in the Land of Israel , including Gaza , Judea and Samaria , exist as of right
and are completely in accordance with international law. In
fact, it is the repeated attempts to prevent Jewish resettlement that is in
violation of international law, as per the San Remo Agreement and its
confirmation by the 1920 Treaty of Sevres. The Mandate for Palestine , set
out by the League of Nations and
later enshrined in the United Nations, set out the right for Jews to settle in
the entire Land of Israel . The
legally binding document was conferred on April 24, 1920 at the San Remo Conference,
and its terms outlined in the Treaty of Sèvres on August 10, 1920 . The
Mandate’s terms were finalized and unanimously approved on July 24, 1922 , by
the Council of the League of Nations ,
which was comprised at that time of 51 countries,4 and became operational on September 29, 1923 . The
Mandate clearly distinguishes between political rights for Jews and civil and
religious rights for non-Jews. Article 2 of the “Mandate for Palestine”
explicitly states that the Mandatory should: “... be responsible
for placing the country under such political, administrative and economic
conditions as will secure the establishment of the Jewish National Home, as
laid down in the preamble, and the development of self-governing institutions,
and also for safeguarding the civil and religious rights of all the inhabitants
of Palestine, irrespective of race and religion.” At
no time in the Mandate document are the Arabs referred as a people, or given
the right for a country within the boundaries of Palestine set
aside for a Jewish National Home. The Arabs were given 21 Arab States.
The claim thatIsrael is
some sort of Holocaust consolation prize to assuage the guilt of Europeans
completely disappears when one considers that this document was internationally
ratified 30 years before World War Two and explicitly states that Jewish
settlement exists by right and not sufferance. The preamble to the text
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." In
other words, the soon to be established Jewish state derives its legitimacy
from the fact that the two previous Jewish commonwealths existed in the Land of Israel , and
that it is the birthplace of the Jewish people. Surrendering any inch of this
land to a foreign power is a betrayal of the ancient Jewish ties to the land,
and to terms set forth by the Mandator document.
The document, valid until this very day according to international law, sets out that "The Administration of Palestine, while ensuring that the rights and position of other sections of the population are not prejudiced, shall facilitate Jewish immigration under suitable conditions and shall encourage, in co-operation with the Jewish agency referred to in Article 4, close settlement by Jews on the land, including State lands and waste lands not required for public purposes." The document does not take into account the existence of any "Palestinian Arab" people and does not distinguish in any way between centralIsrael , the
Galilee , Negev , Judea , Samaria or Gaza . The
policy of denying Jews the right to settle in Judea and Samaria
simply by virtue of their being Jewish is a blatantly anti-semitic policy, one
completely illegal. As Yehuda Z. Blum, Israeli ambassador to the UN,
explained: “A corollary of the inalienable right of the Jewish people to its
Land is the right to live in any part of Eretz Yisrael, including Judea and
Samaria and the East bank of the Jordan river , which are an
integral part of Eretz Yisrael. Jews are not foreigners anywhere in the Land of Israel . Anyone who
asserts that it is illegal for a Jew to live in Judea and Samaria just because
he is a Jew, is in fact advocating a concept that is disturbingly reminiscent
of the ‘Judenrein’ policies of Nazi Germany banning Jews from certain spheres
of life for no other reason than that they were Jews. The Jewish
villages in Judea , Samaria , Golan Heights and the Gaza district are there as
of right and are there to stay."
Zionism has become a very dirty word recently. Jews must stand up and say that Zionism, supporting the right to Jewish self-determination in the entireLand of Israel , and
its practical applications such as resettlement and rebuilding, is the national
liberation movement of the Jewish people. Anyone who opposes Zionism is an
anti-semite because he denies Jews the right of self-determination which is
accorded to all other peoples. Whenever somebody ignorantly repeats the slander
about "illegal settlements" or "outposts", he must be
reminded that international law demands that the trustee of the Mandate for
Palestine, in the modern world, the State of Israel, encourage "close
settlement by Jews on the land" and makes no mention of any other group with
political rights in Israel. There is an illegal occupation in Palestine- but
it is certainly not a Jewish one.
The claim that
The document, valid until this very day according to international law, sets out that "The Administration of Palestine, while ensuring that the rights and position of other sections of the population are not prejudiced, shall facilitate Jewish immigration under suitable conditions and shall encourage, in co-operation with the Jewish agency referred to in Article 4, close settlement by Jews on the land, including State lands and waste lands not required for public purposes." The document does not take into account the existence of any "Palestinian Arab" people and does not distinguish in any way between central
Zionism has become a very dirty word recently. Jews must stand up and say that Zionism, supporting the right to Jewish self-determination in the entire
No comments:
Post a Comment