Why is Condi Rice breaking international law?

Monday, 5th May 2008

For all those (including Haaretz afficionados) who are either ignorant of or deny the true history of the Jewish claim to what was once called Palestine, and who believe the West Bank (and until 2005 Gaza) is territory that is ‘illegally occupied’ by Israel, this admirable and well-informed resume should be required reading (along with this article by Efraim Karsh in Commentary). Look first at the two maps at the beginning, and certain facts immediately leap out. The first is that in 1920 Mandatory Palestine, which was established in order to set up within it the restored Jewish national home, comprised present day Israel, Jordan, the West Bank and Gaza. The second is that by 1922, this territory had shrunk with the creation of Transjordan, after Churchill unilaterally gave three quarters of Palestine to the Hashemite dynasty as part of the realpolitik of the times.

This still left Palestine comprising present-day Israel, the West Bank and Gaza. In other words, the so-called ‘occupied territories’ were to be part of the Jewish national home, all in explicit recognition of the unique historical claim to that entire territory by the Jews -- the only people for whom it had ever been their nation state. Accordingly the Mandate required the encouragement of

'…close settlement by Jews on the land, including State lands and waste lands not required for public purposes’

and conferred an obligation to ensure

‘…that no Palestine territory shall be ceded or leased to, or in any way placed under the control of the government of any foreign power.’

Since the UN charter requires the UN to uphold the terms of this Mandate in perpetuity, the right of the Jews to settle anywhere between the Jordan and the Mediterranean exists under international law to this day.

As it happens, I have been opposed to the Jewish settlements in these territories from the start because I always thought they would turn into a deadly geopolitical and demographic trap for Israel. But the fact is that Jews are entitled to settle in them twice over under international law — once under the terms of the Mandate, and twice because all countries are permitted to hold onto land in self-defence against a continued belligerency.

Given the fact that Condi Rice, President Bush, Tony Blair, the governments of Europe and the entire weight of ‘enlightened’ western opinion, not to mention the Arab and Muslim world and the Haaretz crowd, are bending every sinew to force Jews out of the West Bank (as has already happened in Gaza) and place it under foreign control instead, the question has to be asked: why are all these people attempting to break international law?