Claims of the Jewish and Arab Peoples Under International Law to the Right of Political Self Determination in Palestine

59 Pages Posted: 29 Jan 2014

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Date Written: January 25, 2014

Abstract

The Legal Effect under International Law of the Decision of the Principal Allied War Powers in WWI on the competing claims of the Jewish and Arab peoples to the political rights for Palestine made at the Paris Peace Talks and resolved at San Remo in 1920.. The Jews equitable interests in those political rights recognized initially by the Allies in 1920 and in part by 53 Nations in 1922 on their approval of the Palestine Mandate, matured into the Jews legal interest in those political rights when the Jews met the standards for the vesting of those rights, i.e. attainment of a Jewish population majority and capability of exercising sovereignty. The natural law right of John Locke to the political self determination of a "people" has evolved into a similar right under International Law where it can be satisfied by decolonization. But there is no unilateral right of secession to obtain such right. That is because when there is a tension between the right of self-determination of a people and the right of territorial integrity of a state, the right of the state is paramount because the inviolability of boundaries of a sovereign state have been the mainstay of the new world order commenced in 1648 following the Peace of Westphalia.

The UN Partition Recommended Plan of 1947 in its Resolution 181 was accepted by the Jewish People but Rejected by the Arab people who went to war. Therefore the recommendation was of no further legal force or effect in International Law and plays no current role in the basis of the Jewish claim to sovereignty. The Roots in International law of Jewish rights stem from the 1920 San Remo Resolution and the Palestine Mandate and were confirmed by the Assertion of Independence of the Jews in 1948 and their defense of their territory against all comers

Keywords: political rights self-determination Palestine Mandate

Suggested Citation

Brand, Wallace Edward, Claims of the Jewish and Arab Peoples Under International Law to the Right of Political Self Determination in Palestine (January 25, 2014). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2385301 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2385301

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