NEW YORK (Press Release)– On February 19 in Jerusalem, the LEGAL GROUNDS group, which is educating Israelis about and campaigning for Israel’s rights to all of the lands of the Jewish State, including the areas located beyond ‘the Green Line,’ presented its case at the Knesset. This was in the context of a discussion about exploring ways for Israel to respond to international delegitimization and boycotts.
The open forum was chaired by MK Robert Ilatov, and attended by Members of Knesset Danny Danon, Ze’ev Elkin, Hilik Bar, Shimon Ohayon, Pnina Tamano-Shata and Yoni Chetboun.
LEGAL GROUNDS is a non-governmental educational initiative founded and co-chaired by ZOA’s Israel Director, Jeff Daube, and political researcher analyst and journalist Arlene Kushner, to promote acceptance of Israel’s legal rights in Judea and Samaria. LEGAL GROUNDS is conducting a large scale Knesset and public awareness campaign featuring the Levy Report as one of the more recent expressions of those rights and their application.
The July 2012 Levy Report, 96 pages with 120 pages of appendices compiled by three eminent Israeli jurists, including former High Court Justice Edmund Levy, had been commissioned by Prime Minister Netanyahu. But soon after, the Israel leader shelved the Report once he was subject to withering pressure from antagonistic governments, the media and NGOs.
The Report concluded that Israel’s presence in Judea and Samaria cannot be considered a “belligerent occupation.” Israel’s situation is unique (“sui generis”), and Israel therefore has the legal right to settle in Judea and Samaria. What is more, the Geneva Conventions do not apply to Israel’s presence in these areas.
For this Knesset session about combating the effects of BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions), Dr. Harel Arnon, a highly respected and knowledgeable attorney and co-author of Land Laws and International Law in Judea and Samaria, spoke on behalf of the LEGAL GROUNDS group; earlier, the LEGAL GROUNDS’ committee had persuaded MK Ilatov there could not be adequate discussion about BDS without conversing about Israel’s rights, and had asked him to provide a platform for Arnon.
Arnon discussed the common misconception that in 1967, when Israel took control of Judea and Samaria, the Kingdom of Jordan had legal jurisdiction at the time; thus leading to the public perception that Judea and Samaria de facto became ‘Palestinian territory’ when Jordan later, in 1988, relinquished control. In fact, Arnon asserted, it was Jordan that had contravened international law, when it formerly annexed the area. But in any case, Israel took the land during a defensive war, which meant its own actions were legal.
Arnon ended his presentation with a statement that the settlements are not illegal, and all the injunctions and restrictions normally placed on an occupying nation are not relevant to Israel’s connection to Judea and Samaria.
The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) has expressed its unreserved agreement with Arnon’s statement that “the only way to fight BDS is by telling the truth.” As Arnon told the MKs at the forum, “If you repeat a lie often enough, it becomes the truth. One of the biggest lies, which is feeding the wild incitement campaign that Israel has been dealing with over the last few years, is that Israel is unlawfully occupying Judea and Samaria, and that the presence of the settlements and of Israelis in Judea and Samaria is a violation of international law. I want to confront and refute the accusation that Israel is unlawfully occupying Judea and Samaria.”
Edwin Black, bestselling author of IBM and the Holocaust, also participated in the meeting to talk about his new book, Financing the Flames. His reinforcing of Dr. Arnon’s words included, “At the very least, we must say the truth every time they lie about the settlements being illegal. In order for the BDS movement to exist, they need to misrepresent international law. The way to fight it is to continue telling the truth.”
MK Ilatov was so impressed by Arnon’s presentation, and the importance of the issue, that he now wants to sponsor a follow-up session devoted exclusively to the matter of Israel’s ‘legal grounds.’ Arnon will be involved in the planning, and other MKs have expressed a desire to participate.
LEGAL GROUNDS’ Daube and Kushner both observed “there is a palpable change in the Knesset’s approach to Israel’s ‘legal grounds’ in Judea and Samaria.” Daube added, “This session is proof positive the conversation about the Jewish State’s legal rights and legitimate presence in Judea and Samaria is picking up momentum. We are encouraged by assurances from several MKs that there will be future Knesset opportunities to amplify on the points made today.”
Kushner shared that she was pleased with the “buzz” being generated around this issue, “which promises, in time, to change the dynamic of the public discourse when it comes to Israel’s land rights.”
The LEGAL GROUNDS coalition still is in formation but already is comprised of prominent Zionist organizations, legal specialists, former diplomats, community leaders, and pundits and scholars hailing from Israel, the U.S. and Canada.
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Preceding provided by the Zionist Organization of America
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See: Brand, Claims of the Jewish and Arab Peoples to the Right of Self-Determination in Palestine archived in SSRN.com/abstract=2385304 The common misimpression of illegality is based on the invalid arguments of Arab lawyer Henry Cattan and his friend WT Mallison that were shown to grossly distort international law in Julius Stone, “israel Palestine: Assault on the Law of Nations”
They assumed that the UN Resolution 181, Partition Resolution, became international law when it was only a recommendation that died at birth. They also failed to recognize that any right of the so called Palestinian People, even if they were a real people and not just some Arab people residing in Palestine, had rights to self-determination that were subordinate to rights of existing states to territorial integrity. After WW2, when the natural right of a people to self-determination became international law, the Jewish Peoples political rights to self-determination had already vested. In 1922 some 53 states approving the Palestine Mandate had approved a Jewish National home with settlement on the land “as of right” with an equitable ownership in the political rights to vest when the Jews held a population majority in the area they ruled. In the meantime legal dominion would be held by a trustee or “mandatory” under Article 22 of the League of Nations Covenant.