I realised a long time ago that people's political views are based predominantly on their emotional attachments to their personal upbringing and life experiences and have almost nothing to do with the facts of history, be it ancient or modern, and legality of the issues. Nevertheless, I decided to take a risk and so compiled the following legal information about the most 'famous' resolutions related to the Arab-Israel conflict. The fact that that most of the resolutions have expired or are not legally binding do not bother most of the members of the international anti-Semitic chorus. Strangely, most of Israel's previous governments bow to international pressure even though they are fully aware of its unfairness and anti-Israel bias!
This information is for people who are interested in forming their opinion based on facts or for those who are still open-minded and capable of changing their political view about the right of state of Israel and Jewish people to live in peace on the land of our ancestors in its entirety.
1) In July 1922, the League of Nations entrusted Great Britain with the Palestine Mandate, recognizing "the historical connection of the Jewish people with Palestine" (Jews were commonly called Palestinians at the time). Article 5 of the resolution stated: "The Mandatory (Great Britain) shall be responsible for seeing 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..."
Three months later, in violation of the Mandate, in order to obtain full control over the Suez canal, Great Britain and France made a deal with the Hashemite Kingdom and Egypt and ceded the trans-Jordan (77%) and Golan Heights (5%) from the Palestine Mandate. The League of Nations just rubber-stamped this deal, made by major political powers at the time in violation of the League of Nations' resolution!
2) UN Resolution 181 ("Partition Plan" of 1947): Julius Stone, the eminent professor of international law, completely refutes that UN Resolution 181 is still legally binding on Israel. He argues that that resolution never came into legal force at all: "The Arab states (including Jordan) not only rejected it, but committed armed aggression against it and against Israel, and thus wholly aborted it. They deliberately destroyed it, as it were in utero, before it entered the world, of legal effectiveness..."
3) Security Council resolution 242 (Nov. 22, 1967) was not carried out and became obsolete because the Arab states refused to give "respect for, and acknowledgment of, the sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence of" Israel. Therefore, Israel had retaliated by refusing to withdraw.
4) Roadmap: was a "performance-based and goal-driven" agreement. Its deadline expired in 2005. The Palestinian Authority has never stopped terror attacks against Israel, which is the first and most important prerequisite of the Roadmap agreement prior to further negotiations. Therefore, the agreement has no validity any more.
5) The Annapolis Accord was an attempt to push Israel toward acceptance of a two-state solution. It completely ignored the continuation of the PA's terrorist activities against Israel and disregarded the spirit of the Roadmap agreement. Taking into account that the Accord has not been ratified by both Israel and the Palestinian Authority, just the same as many other international agreements, it is not legally binding! The Annapolis accord was seen as a last-ditch attempt by President George W Bush to make his 'mark' on history!
The legal rule that action has consequences seems to have completely escaped the attention of recent Israeli leaders and the international anti-Semitic community of states and organizations (UN, EU, the Quartet, Russia and the US) since the beginning of the Oslo process and long before it!
Steven Shamrak
Email: StevenShamrak at gmail.com
References:
http://middleeastfacts.com/guests/shifftan_17may05a.php
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2989783.stm
http://www.aijac.org.au/resources/reports/international_law.html
Steven Shamrak, born in the Soviet Union, lives in Melbourne Australia. He is a qualified civil engineer and software specialist, and was an active participant in the nascent Moscow Zionist movement before he arrived in Australia 25 years ago. Believing that "a sense of pride, nationhood and connection to all Jewish land" is missing from Jewish hearts, he spends his spare time Educating Jews and non-Jews about Jewish history in the Middle East.
He worked as a construction engineer at the Moscow Olympic Games project and as a computer consultant in Australia. For several years, he has been publishing an Internet editorial letter about the Arab-Israel conflict since August 2001 and has a website http://www.shamrak.com.
