Let’s remember the following points about the
1947 UN Resolution 181
- It was
simply a recommendation – and It was outright rejected by Israel’s
neighbours
- It
included the concept of “internationalizing” sovereignty of Jerusalem
under UN control, to protect access to holy sites – but the UN neglected
its own recommendation, allowing Jordan to control and desecrate Jewish
sites between 1949 and 1967.
In short, it was a failed resolution that
no longer has any force or relevance. As Liora Chartouni states in JCPA Vol.
17, No. 33, 26 Nov 2017:
“when Mahmoud
Abbas claims that Resolution 181 is a solid proof and basis that “Palestinians”
have a right to their state of their own within the frontiers that it
delineates, he is misleading the international community”
We should be careful not to give credence
to that lie by overstating the significance of that resolution.
A much more significant event in the
process of re-establishing Jewish sovereignty in Israel, is the San Remo
Agreement, rather than Resolution 181....
See this Op-ed by Salomon Benzimra, 26 April 2015.
An exerpt:
… it is astonishing that San Remo and the ensuing Mandate for Palestine
have hardly been mentioned. Is it deliberate? Is it a mere
omission? How could there be peace and reconciliation without
acknowledging fundamental historical and legal facts?
…Commemorating the San Remo Conference should be more than a mere
remembrance. It enjoins us to consider the legal reach of the binding decisions
made in 1920 … unassailable rights enshrined in international law, namely
the acquired rights of the Jewish people in their ancestral land. No
wonder the Palestinian Authority -- intent on eliminating the “Zionist entity,”
as spelled out in the PLO Charter -- abhors the provisions of the San Remo
Resolution…
In reality, the San Remo Resolution and the ensuing clauses of the
Mandate for Palestine are akin to a treaty entered into and executed by each
and every one of the 52 member states of the League of Nations, in addition to
the United States which is bound by a separate treaty with Great Britain,
ratified in 1925.
… you should remember that [the West Bank], as the rest of Israel, was
lawfully restored to the Jewish people in 1920 and its legal title has been
internationally guaranteed and never revoked ever since. Any negotiation
toward achieving a lasting peace should be based on this premise.
As stated in Israel
Forever Blog:
“It is essential that we protect the
truth that formal recognition of Israel as the Jewish national home became
binding international law not in 1947 or 1948, but in 1920, when the
resolutions of the San Remo conference were included as part of the Treaty of
Sèvres (August 1920), and were adopted and signed unanimously by all 51
countries of the League Of Nations.”
