Peloni: Those who forget their past, routinely live to regret it once they finally rediscover it.
Hugh Fitzgerald | July 5, 2024
You have to keep rubbing your eyes in disbelief — how is it that so much of the world thinks it can get away with ignoring the Mandate for Palestine? For that is the birth certificate of modern Israel. That mandate was one of several created in 1921-1922 by the League of Nations, in its attempt to fashion states from the vast territories that were previously part of the Ottoman Empire. Several of those mandates were intended to lead to the creation of Arab states — Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon. In a controversial case, the Emirate of Transjordan was carved out of land originally intended to be part of the Mandate for Palestine. Only one of the mandates was created for the future national home of the Jewish people, to be built in the Land of Israel, where Jews had lived for 3500 years, the place where it was expected they would resurrect their ancient homeland, and live in that homeland by right and not by sufferance. The Palestine Mandate was entrusted to Great Britain, which as Mandatary was obligated, according to Article 6 of the Mandate, to “facilitate Jewish immigration” and “close settlement by Jews on the land.” Which land? All the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean, and from the Red Sea in the south to close to the Golan Heights in the north.
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