JNS
Israel suffers untold economic, political and social costs when its reputation is sullied, even when the U.N. resolutions are malicious and false.
A few weeks ago, the U.N. General Assembly, once again, unfairly attacked the State of Israel. More than two-thirds of the U.N.’s member nations passed a resolution calling for the expulsion of Jews from their ancient homeland in Judea and Samaria (aka the West Bank), including the eastern part of Israel’s capital, Jerusalem.
Like most U.N. condemnations of Israel, this resolution is malicious and deeply flawed. It is based on false facts and allegations. It violates international law and denies indigenous rights to self-determination. Most egregiously, the resolution also ignores Arab-Palestinian leaders’ 75-year campaign of terror and its rejection of all offers by Israel, the United States and the United Nations itself to give them land for a state in exchange for peace.
Despicably, despite these flaws, 124 countries—including France, Spain and Japan—voted to pass the measure. Some 43 nations sheepishly abstained, and 14 brave states—including Argentina, Czechia, Hungary, Paraguay and the United States—stood tall and opposed it.
The good news is that U.N. resolutions by the General Assembly do not affect international law. The bad news, as always, is that Israel suffers untold economic, political and social costs when its reputation is sullied in such forums, even when the resolutions are transparently malicious and false. If anything, Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon was understating when he called the measure “diplomatic terrorism.”
Indeed, the resolution has no other goal than to advance the Palestinians’ decades-long effort to destroy Israel, either in a single violent coup, as Hamas attempted last Oct. 7, or piece by piece, following PLO chief Yasser Arafat’s failed strategy. In any case, every legal, historical and moral argument supports Israel’s continued sovereignty, as well as its control over disputed territories.
Israel’s control of Judea and Samaria is 100% legal under international law. First, there is no occupation. An occupation only exists when one country illegally controls the territory of another country. Judea and Samaria were never legally part of any other country. Though Jordan annexed the territory in 1950, the overwhelming majority of nations rejected their conquest. Puzzlingly, the United Nations passed no resolutions demanding Jordan end its illegal occupation.
Furthermore, Palestine was never a country, nor have Palestinians ever historically owned or controlled any land anywhere in the Middle East. Under Jordan’s rule, Arab Palestinians held Jordanian citizenship. After defeating Jordan’s attempted invasion of Israel in 1967, Israel and Jordan signed a peace treaty in which Jordan relinquished all rights to the territory. In other words, “Palestinian territory” is a fiction.
The U.N. resolution violates international law in three ways:
First, it is based on a decision by the International Court of Justice deeming Israel’s “occupation” of Judea and Samaria illegal. But the ICJ is nothing more than a political body masquerading as a court of law. Its judges are not impartial jurists accountable to international law. Rather, they follow the directives of governments that appoint them as well as their own biases. The current court includes judges from countries—such as China, Somalia, South Africa and Lebanon—that have no respect for others’ territorial rights and that in any case traditionally side with the Palestinians.
Second, the resolution countermands other U.N. resolutions and several international agreements between Israel and the Palestinians. These call for a negotiated settlement to the final status of Judea and Samaria, including the principle established by the U.N. Security Council and the Oslo Accords, which the Palestinians signed, that any Israeli withdrawal be conducted only in exchange for peace.
Third, the resolution advocates the forcible transfer of all Jews out of Judea and Samaria. Forcibly transferring a population is specified by the Rome Statute as a crime against humanity.
This resolution denies the right of the Jewish people to self-determination in their native land. Jews have lived in Judea and Samaria since biblical times and have established several sovereign commonwealths therein with Jerusalem as their capital. The very name Judea denotes the territory as the indigenous homeland of the Jewish people.
In contrast, the name “Palestine” was invented by the Romans with the sole purpose of erasing any connection between the Jews and their homeland. Shamefully, the United Nations is now using the term “Palestine” for the same purpose the Romans did.
Never in the history of the United Nations has the overwhelming majority of its members voted to forcibly expel a people from their indigenous homeland. Such an atrocity would likely never even be considered if the people subject to expulsion were not Jews.
The resolution ignores the Palestinians’ 75-year campaign of terror and repeated Israeli offers of statehood. The Palestinians could have had a state when Israel proclaimed its independence. But they and their Arab allies rejected the 1947 U.N. Partition Plan, choosing instead to launch a war to exterminate the Jews and their new state—the first of several unsuccessful wars aimed at destroying Israel.
Yet because of its strong desire for peace, Israel offered the Palestinians statehood three times in the space of 10 years. In 2000, Israel offered the Palestinians statehood in 92% of Judea and Samaria, plus the Gaza Strip and even a capital in Jerusalem. The Palestinians refused, instead launching the Second Intifada, during which they murdered one thousand Israelis in terrorist attacks.
In 2001, even as the Second Intifada raged, Israel made another, more generous offer—97% of Judea and Samaria. But again, the Palestinians said no. In 2008, Israel made yet another offer—99.4% of Judea and Samaria. And again, the Palestinians said no.
Palestinian actions over decades confirm they don’t want a country of their own next to a Jewish state. Rather, they aim to destroy the Jewish state and replace it with one state called Palestine.
The U.N.’s membership and the world would be better served if the body focused instead on pressuring the Palestinians to recognize the right of the Jewish people to self-determination in their native land and to cease their genocidal slaughter of Jews.
Previously published by FLAME.
