European Coalition for Israel Press release
European speaking tour on Israel’s legal rights concluded in the Palace of Westminster in London
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“Pushing back Israel to 1967 lines is illegal under International Law”
London, 8th July, 2011 –
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The Balfour Declaration, issued by the British Government in 1917, in which the Jewish people were promised a national home did not qualify as international law. However, the San Remo Resolution of 1920, which incorporated the Balfour Declaration, made the pledge binding under International Law. The San Remo Declaration, together with Article 22 of the Covenant of the League of Nations and Article 80 in the Charter of the United Nations, are still applicable today. Pressurising Israel to go back to 1967 lines and dividing Jerusalem would thus be a serious breach of International Law.
These were the words of international human rights lawyer Jacques Gauthier who spoke at a consultation in the House of Commons in London on Thursday, little more than two months before a crucial vote in the UN General Assembly in New York. This is where Israel is being pressurized to accept a new Palestinian state along 1967 lines and to give up the Old City of Jerusalem. In his presentation, Dr Gauthier explained how the Old City of Jerusalem was promised to the Jews and how the Jewish claim to its capital is valid under International Law.
The British and French Governments have said that ”they prefer a negotiated solution to the conflict between the Israeli Government and the Palestinian Authority, but have not ruled out accepting a unilateral declaration of a Palestinian State in September if no progress is made in the peace process in the next weeks.”
In his speech, Gauthier reminded the participants, among them members of both Houses of Parliament, of all the good that British Governments have done over the years to pave the way for a Jewish state, but also about their broken promises.
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‘Just imagine how the world could have been a different place if the White Paper of 1938 which prevented Jews who tried to flee Germany from entering Palestine, had not been issued by the British government.’
ECI director Tomas Sandell noted that it is often easier to commemorate and regret events of the past rather than to make wise decisions in the here and now.
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-‘History is being written as we speak. Let us make sure we make decisions of which we can feel proud when the events of 2011 are added to the history books’
he said, appealing to the British Government not to pressurise Israel into acceptin1967 lines.
The London event concluded a speaking tour of Italy, France and Britain, where these former members of the Supreme Council of the Principal Allied Powers of the First World War were reminded of the pledges made to the Jewish people under International Law. As most people appear to believe that it was the UN Partition Plan of 1947 which gave Israel legitimacy, the speaking tour has focussed on Israel’s legal rights under International Law, dating back to 1920.
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‘Rights were given, both to Arabs and to Jews. We need to honour all of our commitments, including those given to the Jews, as we seek a negotiated solution to the conflict in the Middle East’
, Dr Gauthier concluded.
The meeting was hosted by MP Jeffrey Donaldson who asked the British Government to carefully consider its decision.
-‘Dividing up cities is not the formula for peace’, he said, reminding the Government of their experience in dealing with his hometown of Belfast.
He personally thanked Dr Gauthier for his presentation which he considered the best overview of Israel’s legal rights he had ever heard.
The ECI information campaign will continue with more activities in the coming weeks leading up to the UN vote in mid-September.
@ American Eagle
I stand corrected but I still believe Jews should not be allowed to negotiate. I understand the Japanese are hard bargainers.
Being characterised as “dishrags” to their women will come as a shock to my Goan friends:-)) The culture is a mix of Indian and European because about half of all Goans were coerced into converting during the Inquisition but have remained staunch Christians since.
Goa is not exactly a hell-hole, in fact, it is booming with tourists from around India and the world because of its beaches and forests and rivers, exotic cuisine and laid back culture. It competes with the Carribean for many European tourists but costs a lot less. Somehow, it has recently been infested by what are called Israeli Mafia, many of whom seem to be Israeli pass-throughs from the old Soviet Union and eastern Europe. They are thugs who live in walled compounds, bribe the local officials, and deal drugs and girls. The eastern European women are gorgeous and vapid and make popular prostitutes because they seem to have no other skills. This activity seems to be restricted to the beach areas where the tourists congregate and not the hinterland.
Fortunately for Israel’s image in India the entire country is crawling with Israeli tourists who seem to love India and vice versa. One reason is that Indians throughout history have never been anti-Semitic according to my Jewish friends. They are also used to strange white people going back to the Hippy invasion of the 60’s, so they don’t hold the Israeli Mafia against Israel as a whole. Then there is the common bond of being the targets of Islamic militants throughout history.
The Indian middle-class, which now numbers some 330 million people, also have another thing in common with Israelis – creative technologically-oriented minds and an ability to work hard.
There is a joke in India where a local in New Delhi asks a backpacking Israeli, “So, how many Israelis are there?” “Oh, about six million.” the Israeli says. The Indian replies, “No, no, no. I don’t mean just in New Delhi, I mean in Israel.”
India is a country of wall-to-wall people. Mumbai alone has more people than all the 14 million or so Jews in the world combined.
@American Eagle. I read your text – which is one of the most sensible observations I have ever seen – and was totally surprised when I saw who wrote it. We’re usually on opposite sides. It’s unfortunate that Goa, which didn’t know antisemitism until the Portuguese arrived, has become such a hell hole. I’ve known Goans in Canada. They have a very strange culture in which the women are dominant and the men are total dishrags.
Shmuel and Sonia,
As an implacable Gentile supporter of Israel, let me explain my point of view which eventually brings us to the same place by different routes. I choose to avoid your religious route because it chills other points of view to what was written BY HOLY MEN in a book aeons ago. My version is based on non-religious historical facts and is therefore far more defensible against unbelievers in your creed.
Insisting on the Bible as the source for a resolution of human conflicts is disrespectful to everyone else, in my opinion. This is a religious faith belief which cannot so blithely and blissfully be imposed on “the peoples of the world.” who were also created by the same God.
God, by definition, has no reason to favor one of his creations over another. You wouldn’t even have had the Israel you have now had it not been for the Brits who ousted the Ottoman Turks who were the occupiers until WW-I. Then Israel screwed it up by not annexing the additional land it acquired while defending itself.
What is indisputable is that J&S is the original homeland of the Jews way before Mohammad and Christ were born. It was forcibly taken away by a series of invaders for hundreds of years and so you deserve to have at least a piece of it back as a safe haven after the horrors of the Holocaust and other indignities experienced in the diaspora.
Israel’s founders accepted the partition that was devised to settle the competing claims by both sides whereas the Arabs did not and then tried to impose their will by force and have continued for 64 years. So, as far as I am concerned they don’t deserve anything that Israel does not decide to give them. There is plenty of place for them in the countries surrounding Israel.
From my point of view the Arabs will continue to give Israel plenty of opportunities to retrieve all the land that Israel wants to keep for whatever reason and do so while defending itself. This includes re-taking Gaza and pushing Hamas into the sea or into Sinai if they prefer. Based on their founding charters none of the militant Arab factions are willing to live in peace with Israel, so, sooner or later, just like the Sri Lankans had to do with the Tamil Tigers, Israel will have accept a permanent state of tension and conflict or to send all the Arab militants to live with Allah to have any prospect of a lasting peace.
C’mon, Miao. Please don’t be a wuss. This little spat will give you good practice for use against a Palestinian opponent:-))
I know where to find them in India – the west coast beaches in Goa where they are busy giving Israel a bad name after centuries without any concept of anti-Semitism in India. Good luck getting them back. They are having too much fun dealing drugs and girls in India, believe me.
@ Miao:
Actually I am at fault. I make a point of linking my articles all the time. Here I neglected to do it in the first instance and only did it later. Please stay with us. You have much to offer.
GOOD LEAVE AND DONT COME BACK WHO NEEDS A JACK ASS
@ Miao:
Please understand that there are a few hotheads to shoot from the lip on this forum so on behalf of the more civilized posters, I offer my regrets that you were treated so rudely and that you may not want to return. Perhaps in the future, in a similar situation you might want to put a question in context.
@ Jon C. Randall:
I was asking for the source of the quotations so I could link to them. I’m over on CBC.ca ‘debating’ with the pro-Palestinians about Canada’s decision to vote against the Palestinian resolution at the UN in September. I post there and on Elder of Ziyon as Professor Miao and have a blog about the Mavi Marmara at http://professormiao.blogspot.com/
And I think I probably won’t come back here.
Dr. Uzi Landau is part of the Israel Beitenu, Mr.Lieberman party…
And Dr. Landau is the Minister in charge of the development and control over the natural gas and oil fields.
I have the privilege of having known Uzi for many years and know no one thougher than him on his stern dedication to our people interests. Added to that is the fact that Russian Jews are intrinsic to Israel Beitenu.
FLY in the ointment: The maritime line separating the EXCLUSIVE ECONOMIC ZONES of Israel and Lebanon as well as Cyprus have been defined by two Treaties. One between Lebanon-Hezbollah and Cyprus. And the Treaty between Israel and Cyprus. By those Treaties the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. Montego Bay, 10 Dec. 1982 has been adhered to. (See Part V of said Convention).
Lebanon, after Israel found large fields undersea well within said lines in the Israeli side, decided as islamics are known to do, to request the CHANGE of the location of the lines they agreed upon with Cyprus and thus indirectly with us. They refused repeatedly to work with Israel. Even though there is nothing to discuss. It is unlikely that such maneuvers by Iran-Hezbollah and the Lebanese entity will be of consequence.
Oil pricing and politics is based on futures. What Israel needs to do, though the ninnies who run the government are not capable, is to create a ministry that can negotiate a future — a future in international relations and international clout based on what is known and expected with regard to Israel’s oil and gas.
My fear is, as I have said before, Jews are excellent entrepreneurs but we stink on ice when it comes to being negotiators. We have a false reputation when it comes to money but the fact is we will trade everything to be loved. As entrepreneurs we seem to be wired to sell, sell, sell. Whatever it is; sell. If you have to make painful sacrifices; sell. We sell to Arabs to who don’t buy what they can steal. We sell to “the nations” who know they can “Jew us down”.
Where do we get Jews who can do the job? Certainly not from the North American Jews who don’t want to rock the boat. Off the top of my head, the only ones I can think of are the Russian mafiosi in Netanya. You don’t send your geniuses into battle, you send your bulldogs. But you still need geniuses to tell them what to do. Maybe we have to go to India to find them.
@ Sonia:
Actually I believe the “world” may do as they wish. As long as they do not presume to have any right upon what is ours.
Just as much or even more so is it the Jewish people and our associates of ways from other religions that must adhere to the ancestral principles that serve as base for our creed and our total rights to have all of Eretz Israel. Under no circumstances we may bend to the wishes of foreigners with oil vested intersts and market goals.
Sometime in about 5 years Israel will be commanding one of the largest oil and natural gas reserves in the world.
Even now many are realizing that our blessings are indeed as recited in the Bible and are settling into reality.
We must secure our Land against internal and external enemies and continue to extend our goodwill to all of those willing to receive help and peace.
@Sonia – @Sonia –
@SHmuel HaLevi : hear, hear!! If only we could convince all the peoples of the world that the Bible is the ONLY Book that we need to live in peace and
prosperity with each other. If only PM Netanyahu would consult the Bible and God for the way forward for Israel. May God bless Israel.
“Provide your sources”…? No need for that at all. Lets go and find a Bible.
The territorial limits of Eretz Israel predate the limits of the countries from where hail the foreigners that insolently meet to redefine ours.
I doubt very much that an American, a Brutish and a Russian as well as an Oriental acting on behalf of the so called “un”, can decide and make it so against what is already in THE BOOK.
It has no worked in the past and will not work now either.
THE LAW is totally clear on that.
@Miao – Since you were too lazy to do some research of this subject so easily found, let me give you a few links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Remo_conference
http://mideastweb.org/san_remo_palestine_1920.htm
http://www.enotes.com/topic/San_Remo_conference
http://www.justicenow4israel.com/sanremo.html
http://www.justicenow4israel.com/mandatemap.html
http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/insideisrael/2010/July/San-Remo-Resolution-Revisited/
Enough Sources???
Jon
@ Miao:
Here’s the : gravy
Wish you’d provide your sources.