Email |  Print | RSS | Comment |  

Published: August 28, 2009; The Middle East Matrix.

by Mark B. Kaplan

End the illusion of illegal occupation.

What if everything you think you know to be true is a lie, and everything you see is just an illusion? Sounds like a promo for The Matrix, but this is the reality of life in the Middle East. The rules that apply to other countries strangely change when applied to Israel. Israel becomes subject to “international law” based upon a legal foundation of facts that don’t exist; Israel has leaders, but the leaders would rather suffer the existence of abusive friendships than fight back and protect their children.

the Middle East Matrix - system failure

The United States is leading the crusade against Israel. President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are not only demanding Israel freeze all “settlement construction”, including natural growth, but that Jewish rights be curbed in Jerusalem. Obama is also calling Israel’s presence in Judea and Samaria an “occupation.”

Yes, Israel does have rights under international law, and the Arab propaganda accusation of Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine is another falsehood that needs to end. Israel’s government has never stood up for Jewish land rights. Can it be that they don’t even know what those rights are?

It’s frustrating to see Israeli leaders refuse to challenge the false accusations. The fact is that international law does have a lot to say about Israel’s rights in Judea, Samaria and beyond. Israel’s leaders, President Obama, and the entire world body should look to international law before declaring that Israel should freeze construction, or even worse, surrender portions of the Jewish National Homeland.

Jerusalem attorney Howard Grief spent twenty five years researching Israel’s legal rights under international law. Grief summed up Israel’s legal rights in a new 700-page book entitled, The Legal Foundation and Borders of Israel under International Law. According to Grief, Israel and its legal borders were supposed to be set by the historical formula adopted by the Supreme Council of the Principal Allied Powers at the San Remo Peace Conference in April 1920. Those historical borders were supposed to encompass the Biblical formula of “from Dan to Beersheba.” Unfortunately, the French and the British conspired to cut off large portions of Jewish national land before the ink on the Mandate was dry.

The Principal Allied Powers at San Remo established the Mandate System that created Mesopotamia (Iraq), Syria, Lebanon, and the Jewish National Home in Palestine. The result of the illegal French-British land deals and the British criminal malfeasance in administering the Mandate was the removal of the northern Galilee, Golan and 78% of Palestine, which today is Jordan. However, the final borders of the Mandate include Judea, Samaria, and all of Jerusalem. Israel’s presence in those areas cannot be considered an occupation. The legal title belongs exclusively to the Jewish People.

The Mandate for Palestine was for the exclusive benefit of the Jewish People. No other beneficiary is named in the Mandate. Non-Jewish inhabitants of Palestine were guaranteed the civil and religious rights due to any minority living in a democracy. These rights do not include the right to autonomy. If they did, then every religious group would have the right to an autonomous state.

The British never intended on leaving Palestine for the Jews. Despite their obligations under the Mandate, British actions prevented Palestine from becoming Jewish.

Two years prior to the Balfour Declaration, in which the British committed to use their best endeavors to establish a Jewish country in Palestine, the British signed the secret Sykes-Picot Treaty with France, which called for conquering and dividing Palestine between the two signatories. That treaty was eventually declared illegal, but until that point, creating the Jewish state would have violated the treaty. When the British were appointed the administrators of the Mandate, they succeeded in forcing the French out of Palestine.

The Jews remained the obstacle for British plans to keep Palestine. The British knew Palestine could not be turned over to the Jews until the Jews became the majority in Palestine. The British, rather than fulfill their obligation to assist Jewish immigration, instituted the White Papers that severely limited Jewish immigration and where Jews could settle. When the British finally proposed to end the Mandate, they recommended a partition in which the Jews and Arabs would each receive portions of the land, and the British would keep Jerusalem (the grand prize) and the Negev (where the British expected to find oil). The UN rejected the British plan.

The British purposely change the demographics in Palestine to prevent the Jews from becoming the majority. They also turned a blind eye to illegal Arab immigration. Joan Peters, in her book From Time Immemorial, cites the lack of British documentation regarding illegal Arab immigration into Mandate Palestine. Peters quotes a 1934 article in which the governor of the Hauran region complained of the Arab flight to Palestine, saying, “In the past few months from 30,000 to 36,000 Hauranese (Syrians) had entered Palestine….” The official British records say the number of non-Jewish immigrants for the entire year of 1934 was 1,784. This tells us that an overwhelming number of Arabs identifying themselves as “Palestinians” from “time immemorial” illegally immigrated to Palestine during the Mandate.

Furthermore, the Mandate (Article 5) stipulated 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.” This means that under international law, no one can force the Jewish State to cede any land that is legally recognized as belonging to the Jewish homeland. This renders the 1947 UN Partition Plan an illegal resolution.

The US may not care about International law unless it’s in its own interest, but every American high school graduate knows that the US Government must follow Constitutional law, right?

Apparently not.

In 1924, the US signed a treaty with the British in which the Mandate was adopted as part of the treaty. Article VI of the US Constitution calls a treaty the “Supreme Law of the land.” The rights conveyed through the treaty still stand, including the prohibition to cede Jewish land, as well as the right of settlement.

Obama’s demand that Israel halt settlement construction violates the 1924 treaty. President Obama has no right, under US law, to call Israel’s presence in Judea and Samaria an “occupation.” Additionally, the establishment of an Arab state within the legal boundaries of Israel is a violation of Jewish rights under both international and US law. Therefore, the “Roadmap to Peace” (which expired in 2005) also violates the United States Constitution.

The Justice Now! organization has begun work to take legal action to compel the Obama administration to stop violating the 1924 treaty. Justice Now! Director Dr. Michael Snidecor compares Obama’s demands to a situation in which the British would say they are no longer honoring the 1783 Paris Treaty that granted the thirteen colonies independence, and instead are giving the land to a Native American nation. Justice Now! is also enlisting congressional support to demand Obama obey his own country’s laws, as well as international law regarding Israel’s rightful borders.

Bringing the Jewish People’s rights before the legal system, where propaganda will lose to factual evidence, will end the illusion of illegal occupation and firmly establish the Jewish Nation’s legal rights to all of Israel. Once the propaganda is proven to be a lie, then perhaps, just like in The Matrix, the Jewish People will also be able to stop the bullets of anti-Zionism in mid-air. Then, legal and just solutions can be found to end nearly a century of war and bloodshed.

About the Author:

Mark Kaplan is a former producer, news writer, and anchor for Arutz Sheva and INN-TV. Kaplan was recently appointed the media relations director for the Office for Israeli Constitutional Law/Justice Now.

Mazzeltov,

Crethi Plethi

 Email  Print