The Jewish Right to Judea and Samaria
Since the beginning of President Obama’s term in office, he has highlighted the presence of Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria as one of the main obstacles to a “peace” deal between Israel and the Palestinians. Using the harshest language with which a US official has ever denounced Israel, the US ambassador to the UN blasted “the folly and illegitimacy of continued Israeli settlement activity.” To its great shame, Israel’s leaders have never explained why it is the current American administration’s policies, not the presence of Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria, that are folly and illegitimate. Unfortunately, few are willing to stand up for the political, historical, and religious rights of Jews to Judea and Samaria.
First, it is important to make a semantic note of the proper name for the region. The term “West Bank” was first concocted by the Jordanian in the 1950s, as a pretence to annex the territory to the Jordanian eastern bank. The “West Bank” was intended to erase the Jewish roots of the region, properly known as Judea and Samaria. (One must wonder why the bank of the Jordan River extends 30 miles deep inland!) The name “Judea and Samaria,” of biblical origin, are used in Ottoman and British documents exclusively. Among the travelers, historians, and archeologists who referred to Judea and Samaria are H. B. Tristram (The Land of Israel, 1865); Mark Twain (Innocents Abroad, 1867); R.A. MacAlister and Masterman (“Palestine Exploration Fund Quarterly”); A.P. Stanley (Sinai and Palestine, 1887); E. Robinson and E. Smith (Biblical Researches in Palestine, 1841); C.W. Van de Velde (Peise durch Syrien und Paletsinea, 1861); and Felix Bovet (Voyage en Terre Sainte, 1864). The United Nations Special Committee for Palestine, in its Partition Plan for Western Palestine, approved by the UN General Assembly in 1947, referred to the region as “the hill country of Samaria and Judea.” In short, those who deliberately obfuscate history by using the “West Bank” neologism do so with the intention of denying Jewish rights to that land. Similarly, those who cling to the fantasy that west of the Green line is kosher, while east is “occupied,” should note that the Green Line was never an internationally recognized border but rather the arbitrary armistice lines of the 1948 War of Independence, beyond which point neither Jordanian nor Israeli armies could proceed.
Judea and Samaria are the ancient homeland of the Jewish people, who have been the sole people to maintain a continuous presence there for the past 3000 years. The only period in which Jews did not live in Judea and Samaria was when they were barred from doing so during Jordan’s illegal occupation from 1948 to 1967. It is in Judea and Samaria that the Patriarchs of the Jewish people lived and are buried, where the Kings of Israel fought and ruled, and where the prophets preached and taught. While the territory has been part of three sovereign Jewish states throughout history, there has never been a sovereign Arab, Muslim, or Palestinian state in the region.
The international community recognized Jewish rights to Judea and Samaria in successive treaties. The San Remo Treaty of April 25, 1920 enshrined the Balfour Declaration of 1917 into law, calling for “the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people,” thereby creating the Palestine Mandate. The Palestine Mandate’s preamble included the very significant recital: “Whereas recognition has thereby been given to the historical connection of the Jewish people with Palestine and to the grounds for reconstituting their national home in that country.” The international community was tasked with the creation of a Jewish national homeland in the Land of Israel/ Palestine, which of course included Judea and Samaria, based on the Jewish people’s ancient historical roots there. The Mandatory powers were to “facilitate… close settlement by Jews on the land.” Article 80 of the United Nations Charter specifically stressed that all treaties and mandates from the League of Nations would remain valid. As such, the international recognition of the rights of the Jewish people to the entire Land of Israel was never rescinded. The UN General Assembly’s Resolution 181, known as the Partition Plan, was only a recommendation, one that was rejected by the Arab members, and thus had absolutely no effect on the terms and conditions of the Palestine Mandate.
Previous to Israel’s liberation of Judea and Samaria as a result of the Six Day War, the territory had been illegally annexed by Jordan in an act of aggression. By contrast, Judea and Samaria came under Israeli control in a defensive war. Stephen Schwebel, former President of the International Court of Justice, argues that countries acting in self-defense may seize and occupy territory when necessary to protect themselves (American Journal of International Law, April 1970). Even more important to note is that there is no sovereign power over Judea and Samaria, which makes the charge of “occupation” to be rather inaccurate.
It is the height of historical revisionism to assert that Jews living in the land of their ancestors are somehow occupiers or invaders. The cities and communities of Judea and Samaria, such as Hebron, Beit El, Shiloh and Bethlehem, represent some of the most significant sites in Jewish history. That in essence is Zionism – the desire of the Jewish people to return to their homeland. If Jews do not have a right to Hebron, a city that has been Jewish for the past 3000 years, the burial site of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs of the Jewish people, certainly they do not have a right to Tel-Aviv which recently celebrated its centennial. The reason why Jews built “settlements” after 1967 was because Jordan ethnically cleansed Judea and Samaria of its Jews during its 19-year occupation. Certainly, the international community cannot deny Jews the right to live in Judea and Samaria based on Jordan’s policy of racial discrimination. Furthermore, just as it would be anti-Semitic to argue that Jews should be barred from living in Montreal, New York, or Paris simply because they are Jewish, it is equally anti-Semitic to demand that Jews be expelled from their homes in Judea and Samaria for the same reason.
The response to those who seek to limit Jews from living in their ancient homeland is to keep on building, settling, and growing. In 1967, there were no Jews living in Judea and Samaria. In 1995, there were 150, 000, today there are over 350, 000 and G-d willing, soon there will be half a million Jews living in Judea and Samaria. To those who scream out “occupation,” Israel’s leaders must repeat the famous words of Simon the Maccabbee to the Greek King Antiochus: “We have neither taken foreign land nor seized foreign property, but only the inheritance of our fathers, which at one time had been unjustly taken by our enemies. Now that we have the opportunity, we are firmly holding the inheritance of our fathers.” Jewish rights to Judea and Samaria can no longer be trampled upon.
Originally published on :
http://princearthurherald.com/en/uncategorized/the-jewish-right-to-judea-and-samaria
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