CILR News
ISRAEL HAS LEGAL RIGHTS AND THE TIME HAS COME TO COUNTER THE LIES ABOUT ISRAEL AS AN OCCUPIER.
By Diane Bederman
March 28, 2018
Israel will celebrate 70 years in existence this May. And for her entire existence her right to exist has been questioned by some and denied by many.
The San Remo Conference in 1920, following in the footsteps of the Balfour Declaration of November 2, 1917, under the auspices of the Supreme Council of the Principal Allied Powers adopted the final resolution: Turkey ceded Syria and Lebanon to France; and Palestine, Transjordan and Mesopotamia to Britain. ‘Palestine’ became a legal entity, though as yet with undetermined borders.
The Mandate for Palestine confirmed In July 1922, was approved by the 52 members of the League of Nations, and included in its Preamble: Recognition of the historical connection of the Jewish People, reconstituting their national home in that country.
Many well researched books have been written about Israel’s legal borders. The late Salomon Benzimra wrote The Jewish People's Rights to the Land of Israel in Kindle format, and the paperback will be published shortly on Amazon.ca and Amazon.com.
Howard Grief wrote The Legal Foundation and Borders of Israel Under International Law, and Jacques Gauthier gave us The Jewish Claim to Jerusalem.
When Jimmy Carter was President of the USA from 1978 to 1982 he asked Joan Peters to research the rights of Palestinians in the Middle East. She did. And her book, From Time Immemorial was not what Carter had envisioned as he championed the “Palestinian” story; that the Jews were interlopers. She showed that a substantial immigration of Arabs to Palestine took place during the first half of the twentieth century. Not three thousand years earlier when the Jews were already living in the land and despite all attempts to exile the Jews, many remained.
The words shared by Joan Peters in 1984 remain true today:
“…the British – a ‘civilized’ people – were willing to see Jews in Europe put to death by the Nazis; for ‘fear’ of ‘Arab comment, the British claimed that ‘Palestine’ had ‘no more places’ for Jews, while at the same moment the British were importing ‘illegal’ Arab immigrants by tens of thousands into Palestine to do ‘necessary’ work – work and place they denied the Jews.”
And “Today, the explicitly stated Arab goals appear to be gaining credence once again through the medium of propaganda and twisted rhetoric, unquestioned by those of us who haven’t known the questions to ask, and unhindered by many who have guessed. Those who understand the reality ought to demand more.”
Why, then, do so many people/nations question Israel’s borders-and the borders of no other country? Why is the Jewish state the only state whose right to exist is questioned?
There is only one possible answer: It is the severe lack of education.
Despite ground-breaking documents attesting to Israel’s Rights to the Land of Israel under International Law; including the Levy Report, commissioned in January 2012 by the Government of Israel, authored by the late Edmund Levy, and by Alan Baker; the myth of OCCUPATION is spreading throughout the entire world.
The time has come, or better still, it is time overdue to educate students of High School and university age — starting in Israel — and eventually Jewish and non-Jewish youth and the public at large — about Israel’s legal RIGHTS, lest we lose the next generation of voters and leaders, victims of ignorance.
The danger facing world youth is the toxic atmosphere on university campuses, including those of the highest reputation, which of late has changed from the marketplace of ideas, to the marketplace of venomous, destructive incitement of hate and lies!
We can only achieve change by inculcating in future generations the urgent and imperative of educating them about the TRUTH, NOT LIES.
From the Ethics of the Fathers: “Rabbi Tarfon used to say, it is not incumbent upon you to complete the task, but you are not exempt from undertaking it.”
This article was originally published on Diane Bederman's website on March 28, 2018, and can be viewed on her site by clicking here.