The Covenant says "Certain communities" ... ... "their existence as independent nations can be provisionally recognized."
• The Covenant does not specifically say which "communities." We just assume the Allied Powers in the Covenant of 1919 included "Palestine"
(within such boundaries as may be fixed by them) as a provisional candidate.
• In 1919, when the Covenant was written, the was no political subdivision called Palestine. The Political identity as a legal entity was created by the Allied Powers.
• Even in 1922, the implementing documents were:
08/14/1922 C.639.M.378.1922.VI
Mandate for Palestine - Mandatory order
08/10/1922 C.639.M.378.1922.VI
- The Palestine Order in LoN Council - Mandatory order
What the ACTUAL ORDER said - no interpretation was:
And 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Allied Powers have also agreed that the Mandatory should be responsible for putting into effect the declaration originally made on November 2, 1917, by the Government of His Britannic Majesty, and adopted by the said Powers, in favour of the establishment in Palestine of a national home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 rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country;
It does not mention an entity creation dedicated to the Arab of Palestine; the territories to which the Mandate for Palestine applies.
2. The territory that was under colonial development was Palestine.
(COMMENT)
Two important points need to be made, relative to the "development" of the Territory under Mandate in the 1920s.
Paragraph 22, UK Political History of the Administration of Palestine
(Lord Alexander Cadogan to UN Secretary General Trygve Lie)
22. Later in 1923, a third attempt was made to establish an institution through which the Arab population of Palestine could be brought into cooperation with the government. The mandatory Power now proposed “the establishment of an Arab Agency in Palestine which will occupy a position exactly analogous to that
accorded to the Jewish Agency”. The Arab Agency would have the right to be consulted on all matters relating to immigration, on which it was recognised that “the views of the Arab community were entitled to special consideration”. The Arab leaders declined that this offer on the ground that it would not satisfy the aspirations of the Arab people. They added that, never having recognised the status of the Jewish Agency, they had no desire for the establishment of an Arab Agency on the same basis.
The lack of cooperation in the development of the Territory was astonishing. However, the Jewish Community toke and entirely different perspective.
Reports on the Palestine Administration Year 1923, Published June 1924
Extract ... The Zionist Committee have special branches for maintaining agricultural settlement, commerce and industry. Indirectly, the Zionist Committee has co-operated in several constructive public works undertaken by the Government. Thus, it advanced the money to the Government for the cost of laying a metalled road to the villages of Rishon le Zion and Rehobot from the main Jaffa-Jerusalem road, which forms the first part of a highway to be built to Gaza. The Jewish Co-operative Labour Association, a body supported by the Zionist Organisation, competes for contracts for the construction of roads and other public works. Among the works carried out by it for the Government are the Tiberias-Semakh road, and other roads in Galilee, for a total price of about £E.150,000; the construction of a railway siding for the army at Sarafand, and of a branch line from Ras el Ain to the Jewish village of Petah Tikvah; the building of barracks at Jenin, and of a Government office at Ramleh. The total value of these Government and army contracts to the end of 1922 was nearly £E.200,000.
The Palestine Government is in touch with a number of organisations other than the Zionist Organisation, which have as their object to assist in the settlement of Jews in Palestine. In particular, the Palestine Economic Board, the Jewish Colonisation Association, and the Palestine Development Council constituted by Jews in the United States, the Alliance Israelite Universelle, whose Headquarters are in Paris, and the Joint Distribution Committee for the Relief of War Sufferers who maintain Jewish orphans in Palestine.
3. The British colonization project was started in 1921.
(COMMENT)
There was no "British Colonization Project." It is often difficult to prove a negative such as this. Clearly, there were segments of the Arab Palestinian community that adopted the view of "invasion."
And most certainly, (in the 1930s and 1940s) the Government of Palestine was very aware of the illegal immigration by
Jews to
Mandatory Palestine that was outside the parameters implied by the British
White Paper of 1939.
But Jewish large scale immigration to the Holy Lands date back to a time well before the epic rescue Jews from the murder
(looting for profit) and Catholic Inquisition. Admiral Kemal Reis arrived in Spain with the Ottoman Fleet (1492) with the Sultan's orders to evacuate Spanish Jews and bring them into the lands of the Ottoman Empire.
4. The colonial power was Britain.
(COMMENT)
While it is true that the British were considered a Colonial Power, the immigration into the territory was not British or minions under the British Empire. They were Jews.
REPORT ON PALESTINE ADMINISTRATION, 1922.
Extract ..... In July, 1922, His Majesty's Government published a White Paper* (Cmd. 1700) which embodied a statement of its policy in relation to Palestine. The statement, while reiterating the purpose of His Majesty's Government enunciated in the Balfour Declaration relating to the establishment in Palestine of a Jewish National Home, defined that purpose and the manner of its execution in terms which left no doubt of the determination of His Majesty's Government to preserve the rights and interests of the non-Jewish population.
Following a memorandum presented by His Majesty's Government in September to the League of Nations, a resolution was passed by the Council of the League to exclude Transjordan from the Articles of the Mandate which concern the Holy Places and the measures to be taken in concert with the Jewish Agency for the establishment of a Jewish National Home.
(EPILOG)
What happened then, remembering the Balfour Declaration
(a 100 years old this year), led to the reality of today. By whatever methods, mechanism, workings, or magic ---- there exists an independent and sovereign entity called: Israel.
Even if this cascade series of events, over the last 100 years, were totally "illegal"
(as the Arab Palestinians would have you believe) it does NOT matter. The State of Israel
(the Jewish National Home) exists.
You cannot roll back the clock, replay the down, or wave off for another landing. You have to be willing to entertain the day.
Most Respectfully,
R