By: Wallace Edward Brand

Wallace Edward Brand — Fri, 17 Aug 2012 16:39:55 +0000

I think the Levy Report is correct. It traces the roots of Jewish sovereignty over that part of Palestine formerly known as CisJordan, Palestine West of the Jordan River to the grant of exclusive political rights to World Jewry inrecognition of the historical connexion of the Jewish people with Palestine and of the grounds for reconstituting their national home in that country. In Article II of the Mandate, the agreemen was not just for a “national home”, but for a “Jewish national home, as laid down in the preamble, and the development of self-governing institutions.”
But it limits the grant in Article II by putting it in trust of a British Mandatory Power because it was intended that sovereignty would not vest in the Jewish people in Palestine until they attained a population majority. They had been a plurality of the population in Jerusalem as long ago as 1845 and a majority since 1963 but in 1917 they were only about 60,000 of a total population of 600,000 in Palestine. Opponents of the Balfour Declaration argued that it would be anti-democratic to give a 10% minority of the population rule over 600,000 people. But the British Foreign Office in a memorandum of September 19, 1917, written by Arnold Toynbee and Lewis Namier, said that they agreed with the “antidemocratic” argument in principle, but as applied to the proposed Balfour Declaration it would be “imaginary” as he grant would be in trust, and the rights to sovereignty would not vest until the Jews had attained a population majority. So what was invisioned was a two step process in which the first step was a national home while immigration from the diaspora was being facilitated as provided in the mandate or trust agreement, and there was also a provision prohibiting the trustee from ceding any of the trust res to a foreign power during the long estimated time it would take for the Jews to reach a population majority. The Zionist Organization was the official advistor to the trustee. When England abandoned its trust, the best claim to the trust res would be that of the beneficiary, world Jewry, and to their agent, the Government of Israel. In any event, the UN had permitted Israel to announce its independence in 1948 and by 1950 in any event the Jews had attained a population majority within the boundaries of the land they held under the Armistice agreement. This is all the land within the so called Green Line. They had additionally gained sovereignty over that land in the historic way, by announcing their independence and holding their rights by force of arms and with their own blood and treasure. In 1967 they liberated the rest of the land granted in the 1920 San Remo resolution.

Comments on: Levy report and NYT getting basic facts wrong

By: Wallace Edward Brand