Legally
non-Binding Resolutions!
by Steven Shamrak
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 actions have
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!
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