Dr. Jacques Gauthier:
It was a declaration of the British War cabinet in the middle of World War I. It was binding on the British, but not binding on the other nations. Nothing in a treaty or official.
Lloyd George was convinced that a national homeland for the Jews was a historic necessity. He considered it important to repair the multitude of wrongs done to the Jewish people.
1919 - Paris Peace Conference
For six months, the Allies sat at the Quai d'Orsay dealing with the ramifications of the war. When you lost a war prior to the 20th century, the conqueror took the territory and the international community recognized his title.
World War I was so devastating.
The Ottoman Territory's key parts were claimed by the Arab people and the Jewish people. The principle allied powers were the US, the UK, France, Italy and Japan.
The Zionist Organizations asked the allied powers to "recognize the historic title of the Jewish people to Palestine and the right of the Jews to reconstitute their National Home in Palestine."
Great Britain would as the Mandatory Authority.
Nothing should be done to prejudice "the civil and religious rights of non-Jewish community...in Palestine, nor the rights and political status by Jews in all other countries." (We see how well that turned out.)
The Jews asked for the above map, which corresponded to the Biblical allocation to the Twelve Tribes.
In Article 22 of the Covenant of the League of Nations.
Treaty of Neuilly - the conquering nations were given title to the land they won.
Europe was reconfigured as a result of the decisions of the principle Allied Powers in 1919.
The 40 decisions made after World War I by the principle allied powers regarding Europe were considered binding. The decisions made regarding the Arabs were considered binding. The only ones that are still not recognized are the Jewish people.
In Paris, the principle powers were so busy dealing with Europe, they didn't make a decision about the Ottoman Empire.
They reconvened in April 1920 in San Remo, Italy. One April 24 and 25, 1920, they dealt with the Arab and Jewish claims. They decided to take the Balfour Declaration and incorporate it into the declaration for the Jewish claims, and create a Jewish National Home. They agreed to recognize the Jewish people as a valid claimant.
Chaim Weizman, who was there, wrote, "The San Remo decision has come. That recognition of our rights in Palestine is embodied in the Treaty with Turkey (called the Treaty of Sevres), and has become part of International Law, this is the most momentous political event int he whole history of our movement (Zionist movement), and, it is, perhaps no exaggeration to say in the whole history of our people since the Exile.
As a result of the decisions of the Supreme Council in San Remo, the claim of the Zionist Organization which, prior to the Conference, was a non-legal claim (essentially an historic claim), evolved into a legal claim which was consolidated later by the approval of the Mandate of Palestine by the Council of the League of Nations."
Article 2 of the Mandate for Palestine (approved by the Council of the League of Nations on July 24, 1922) says, "The Mandatory shall be responsible for placing the country under such political, administrative and economic conditions as will secure the establishment of the Jewish national home, as laid down in the preamble, and the development of self-government institutions, and also for safeguarding the civil and religious rights of all the inhabitants of Palestine, irrespective of race and religion."The Mandate's preamble said, "...Whereas the Principal Allied Powers have also agreed that the Mandatory should be responsible for putting into effect the declaration originally made on November 2, 1917, by the government of His Britannic Majesty, and adopted by the said Powers, in favor of the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, it being clearly understood that nothing should be done which might prejudice the civil and religious right of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country; and whereas recognition as there by been given to the historical connection of the Jewish people within Palestine and to the grounds for reconstituting their national home in that country."
Syria and Lebanon are given 120,000 square miles.
Iraq is given 143,000 square miles.
Another 100,000 for Saudi Arabia.
More and more...the result of the Arabs, having never had an independent state before, they now had 438,000 square miles, plus more.
Palestine - 16,000 square miles, compared to almost a half million square miles for the Arabs.
And yet in 1921, there's a crisis. Faisal is pushed out of Damascus, the Arabs are upset, Churchill meets him and contrary to all the principles of the Mandate, Palestine is divided again in order to make an Arab State in Transjordan.
Today the Jewish people are fighting to retain a small component of what they were promised. Solemn pledges that were made, today have been forgotten.
When the UN was established, Article 80 of the Charter of the United Nations said in Chapter XII - International Trusteeship System, "...nothing in this Chapter shall be construed in or of itself to alter in any manner the rights whatsoever of any States or any people or the terms of existing international instruments to which Members of the United Nations may respectively be parties."
But the pledges given to the Jewish people by the nations of the world have been violated and denied.
