Palestine, UNESCO and Legal Realities

"The authority of the legitimate power having in fact passed into the hands of the occupant, the latter shall take all the measures in his power to restore, and ensure, as far as possible, public order and safety, while respecting, unless absolutely prevented, the laws in force in the country."

Article 43 could not possibly have any applicability to the West Bank or the interpretation attributed to it by its Arab proponents in UNESCO for the following reasons:

1. There was no legitimate power in the West Bank in 1967. Jordan's attempt to annex the West Bank in 1950 had only been recognized by Great Britain and Pakistan and this position remained unchanged until its loss to Israel in 1967.Jordan may have been an occupying power. It certainly was not a legitimate power.
2. The West Bank was not a "country" or recognized as part of a country in 1967.Its legal status then was - and still is - part of the 6% of land contained in the Mandate for Palestine still remaining unallocated pursuant to the provisions of the Mandate and the UN Charter.
3. Article 43 does not mention - nor can it be reasonably interpreted as including - any obligation to "re-establish and maintain civil life for the benefit of the occupied population"

Any cursory examination of the Arabs legal claim by UNESCO's secretariat should have resulted in an instant rebuttal of their position. That UNESCO unquestioningly swallowed such claim indicates the gullibility and lack of scrutiny of those who administer its proceedings.

Representatives from the Arab States, the Organization of the Islamic States, the African Union and the Organization of American States comprise 35 of the current 58 Board members.The passage of any anti-Israel resolution at the Board is virtually guaranteed.

This latest attempt to twist and misinterpret international law has become part of the relentless Arab effort to delegitimize Israel and deny any Jewish rights to live in the West Bank - its biblical, ancestral and legally recognized patrimony - in accordance with the unanimous decision of the League of Nations made in 1920.

Arab efforts designed to create the impression that Jewish towns and villages established in the West Bank since 1967 pursuant to such vested rights are illegal in international law is but another example of the lengths the Arabs are prepared to go in their desire to misrepresent the legal position in the West Bank and claim Arab sovereignty to the exclusion of Jewish claims.

Relying supposedly on international law to support such claims - the Arabs have no qualms in rejecting the binding legal validity of the Mandate for Palestine, the United Nations Charter and Resolution 242 as the determining pieces of international law to settle the final status of the West Bank.

The latest attempt to pull the wool over UNESCO's eyes remains an important reminder to closely examine any purported legal claims made by the Arabs - which cannot ever be taken or accepted at face value.