P F Tinmore, et al,
Again, just because you keep saying this, does not mean it is any more sound or valid.
Palestine lies on the western edge of the continent of Asia between latitude 30° N. and 33° N., Longitude 34° 30 E. and 35° 30' E.
On the south-west it is bounded by Egyptian territory, on the south-east by the Gulf of Aqaba, on the east by Trans-Jordan, on the north by the French Mandated territories of Syria and the Lebanon, and on the west by the Mediterranean.
The boundaries are as follows:--
South-west.--From a point on the Mediterranean coast north-west of Rafa, passing in a south-easterly direction to the south-west of Rafa, to a point west-north-west of Ain Maghara; thence to the junction of the Gaza-Aqaba and Nekl-Aqaba roads, from whence it continues to the end of the boundary line at the point of Ras Taba on the western shore of the Gulf of Aqaba.
South-east.--From Ras Taba, the Gulf of Aqaba to a point two miles west of Aqaba, thence up the centre of the Wadi Araba, the Dead Sea, and the Jordan, to the centre of the River Yarmuk to the Syrian frontier.
North.--The northern boundary was laid down by the Anglo-French Convention of the 23rd December, 1920, and its delimitation was ratified in 1923. Stated briefly, the boundary runs from Ras el Naqura on the Mediterranean east-wards to Metulla and across the upper Jordan valley to Banias, thence to Jisr Banat Yaqub, thence along the Jordan to the Lake of Tiberias and on to El Hamme station on the Samakh-Deraa railway line.
West.--The Mediterranean Sea.
The Mandate was not a place. It was a temporarily assigned administration for Palestine.
It had no land or borders.
(OBSERVATION)
PART I.
PRELIMINARY.
Title.
The limits of this Order are the territories to which the Mandate for Palestine applies, hereinafter described as Palestine.
(COMMENT)
The territory to which Palestine Mandate applied was NOT decided in 1922 --- thus the border you describe was not fix yet. These borders were not decided by the Arab Palestinian, or any indigenous representative. They were not national boundaries. The boundaries were not final until 1924 with the last transfer from Syria.
The
Paulet–Newcombe Agreement or Paulet-Newcombe Line, also known as the
Franco-British Boundary Agreements, were a sequence of agreements signed between 1920-23 between the
British and
French governments regarding the position and nature of the boundary between the
Mandates of
Palestine and
Mesopotamia, attributed to Great Britain, and the Mandate of
Syria and the
Lebanon, attributed to France. The agreements fixed the line of the Syrian-Palestinian border
(now the Syrian-Israeli border) between the
Mediterranean Sea and the town of
Al-Hamma. The agreement takes its name from French Lieutenant Colonel N. Paulet and British Lieutenant Colonel
S. F. Newcombe, who were appointed to lead the Boundary Commission.
The boundary between the forthcoming
British and
French mandates was defined in broad terms in the 1920 "Franco-British Convention on Certain Points Connected with the Mandates for Syria and the Lebanon, Palestine and Mesopotamia", signed in
Paris, on 23 December 1920. That agreement placed the bulk of the
Golan Heights in the French sphere. The treaty also established a joint commission to settle the precise details of the border and mark it on the ground.
The commission submitted its final report on 3 February 1922, which included a number of amendments. It was approved with some caveats by the French and British governments on 7 March 1923, several months before Britain and France assumed their Mandatory responsibilities on 29 September 1923.
"The boundary between the forthcoming
British and
French mandates was defined in broad terms. That agreement placed the bulk of the Golan Heights in the French sphere. The treaty also established a joint commission to settle the border and mark it on the ground. The commission submitted its final report on 3 February 1922, and it was approved with some caveats by the British and French governments on 7 March 1923, several months before Britain and France assumed their Mandatory responsibilities on 29 September 1923. In accordance with the same process, a nearby parcel of land that included the ancient site of
Dan was transferred from Syria to Palestine early in 1924. In this way the Golan Heights became part of the
French Mandate of Syria. When the French Mandate of Syria ended in 1944, the Golan Heights remained part of the newly independent state of Syria."
The Survey, a
Survey of Palestine prepared by
Government of Palestine (then under British military occupation/Mandate) for the United Nation Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP) in 1946, was still defined by the Palestine Order in Council: "the territories to which the Mandate for Palestine applies, hereinafter described as Palestine." Between October, 1917, and September, 1918, the whole of Palestine was occupied by the Allied Forces under General Allenby and placed temporarily under a British military administration known as the Allied Occupied Enemy Territory Administration (OETA). If you go to the
Survey of Palestine prepared by
Government of Palestine you will find it is all about the Mandate.
Border with Egypt
The international border between the Ottoman Empire and the British Empire was drawn in 1906. According to the personal documents of the British colonel Wilfed A. Jennings Bramley, who influenced the negotiations, the border mainly served British military interests—it furthered the Ottomans as much as possible from the
Suez Canal, and gave Britain complete control over both
Red Sea gulfs—Suez and Aqaba, including the
Straits of Tiran. At the time, the
Aqaba branch of the
Hejaz railway had not been built, and the Ottomans therefore had no simple access to the Red Sea. The British were also interested in making the border as short and patrollable as possible, and did not take into account the needs of the local residents in the negotiations.
The
1949 Armistice Agreement between
Israel and
Egypt was ratified on February 24, 1949. The armistice line between these countries followed the international border except along the
Gaza Strip, which remained under Egyptian occupation.
The
Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty, signed on March 26, 1979 created an officially recognized international border along the 1906 line. A dispute arose over the marking of the border line at its southernmost point, in
Taba. Taba was on the Egyptian side of the armistice line of 1949, but Israel claimed that Taba had been on the Ottoman side of a border agreed between the Ottomans and British Egypt in 1906, and that there had previously been an error in marking the line. The issue was submitted to an international commission composed of one Israeli, one Egyptian, and three outsiders. In 1988, the commission ruled in Egypt's favor, and Israel returned Taba to Egypt later that year.
Egypt withdrew any claim to the Gaza Strip. The border between Israel and the Gaza Strip is subject to further negotiations.
Border with Jordan
The Israel-Jordan Treaty of Peace was signed on October 26, 1994. The treaty resolved territorial and border issues that were ongoing since the 1948 war. The treaty specified and fully recognized the international border between Israel and Jordan. Upon its signing, the
Jordan and
Yarmouk Rivers, the
Dead Sea, the
Emek Ha'arva/Wadi Araba and the
Gulf of Aqaba were officially designated as the borders between Israel and Jordan, and the border between Jordan and the territory occupied by Israel in 1967. For the latter, the agreement requires that the demarcation use a different presentation, and that it carry the following disclaimer:
"This line is the administrative boundary between Jordan and the territory which came under Israeli military government control in 1967. Any treatment of this line shall be without prejudice to the status of the territory."
(See:
Israel-Jordan Peace Treaty, Annex I, Israel-Jordan International Boundary Delimitation and Demarcation.
[18])
In 1988, Jordan withdrew any claim to the
West Bank. The border between Israel and the West Bank will be negotiated between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
Border with Palestine
There has been no productive negotiations with the authorities in the State of Palestine concerning the establishment of borders. The PLO-Negotiations Affairs Department sees the 1967 border (not further identified) is the internationally-recognized border between Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories.
Most Respectfully,
R
