In a conversation not long ago with a leading religious lawyer from the Legal Forum Against the Disengagement, he admitted that it was a mistake not to spread information in time about the legality of the settlements according to international law. He also did not deny my suggestion that many religious Jews think, "Who are these Goyim with their international law to tell us about our right to the holy land? We have our Bible and our God and that is enough." Furthermore, many religious Jews think that as the nations kept quiet in the Holocaust, there is no point referring to the laws of the nations.
Thus, it is a tragic situation that Jews who are most often realistic with respect to the real intentions of the Arabs, the religious Jews, have the seeds of their failure planted in their very beliefs. The lawyer I spoke with at least recognized the need not to repeat the same mistake. It is a fact that Judea, Samaria and Gaza leaders were advised a long time ago to use every opportunity when they go before the media to reiterate international law with respect to Palestine, but they did not do so.
To illustrate the point, consider the reporting of the three, 24-hours-a-day British TV channels. While presenting, for hours, live, the uprooting of Jews in Gaza, every few minutes the newscaster would repeat that "this is the end of the occupation in Gaza and of the settlements there, which are illegal according to international law." To further reduce sympathy for the settlers, the British reporters would keep repeating that had the deportees been Arabs, they would have gotten much harsher treatment. Then, they proceeded to describe this harsher treatment, often aided by Arab guests.
The British media had also, in the days previous to the uprooting, interviewed many on the Israeli Left - such as ex-minister Yuli Tamir and the editor of the Jerusalem Report - who would gloat about the taboo that is being broken, which, they said, would make it easier to uproot Jews next time around. The Israeli leftist commentators also gleefully reported that, as a result of the uprooting, the Israeli public will hate the settlers even more, because of their invoking of the Holocaust, because of their use of children, because of their violence, because of their fanatic religious fundamentalism - all these, too, they said, would make it easier to uproot Jews next time around.
I think the main conclusion is that it is crucial to spread, at home and abroad, the fact that the uprooting has been not only a crime against basic human rights, but against international law, which obliges all nations to urgently encourage the dense settlement of Jews in Western Palestine. The uprooting has been exactly the opposite of this. International law explicitly forbids the transfer of the land out of Jewish control, in perpetuity, and it gives only Jews political rights in Western Palestine. In this transgression of international law, the uprooting has been a major crime. This is particularly so because the land transferred was public land and it was transferred to the enemy.
One way to spread these facts is to demand with great fanfare, in every forum and court of law, the immediate return of the land to Jewish control for Jewish settlement and for rebuilding what has just been destroyed. The relevant section from the Palestine Mandate should be cited, with article 80 (chapter 12) of the UN Charter that makes these dictates of the League of Nations valid in the life of the UN, and the confirmation of this principle by the International Court of Justice in the analogous case of South-West Africa. This, I think, should be the main and urgent mission of all Zion-loving Jews and non-Jews.
It is also important to repeat that there is no need for territorial continuity (there are many examples, such as Northern Ireland) in order to maintain a Jewish democratic state. Arabs in Western Palestine could vote for a parliament in Amman and Jews, for a parliament in Jerusalem.
It is not for nothing that the Israeli authorities have, for years, stopped defending on radio and TV the legality of the settlements, even though the alleged illegality of the settlement has been, and still is, the main criticism of Israel in all forums. Only by demonizing and deligitimizing the settlers, and by hiding the true international law, was it possible to commit this crime in the face of public opinion at home and abroad. Not to proclaim international law now amounts to repeating the same mistake.
Further Reading:
http://www.think-israel.org/rostowNR.html
http://www.think-israel.org/shifftan.belligerentoccupation.html
http://www.think-israel.org/shifftan.uprooting.html
http://www.a7.org//News/News.aspx/111824
http://www.hazofe.co.il/web/katava6....
http://www.nativ.cc/102/grief.htm
http://www.think-israel.org/grief.transfer.html
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2751/is_n33/ai_14538698/print
http://www.geocities.com/israelwhitepaper/print.html
Thus, it is a tragic situation that Jews who are most often realistic with respect to the real intentions of the Arabs, the religious Jews, have the seeds of their failure planted in their very beliefs. The lawyer I spoke with at least recognized the need not to repeat the same mistake. It is a fact that Judea, Samaria and Gaza leaders were advised a long time ago to use every opportunity when they go before the media to reiterate international law with respect to Palestine, but they did not do so.
To illustrate the point, consider the reporting of the three, 24-hours-a-day British TV channels. While presenting, for hours, live, the uprooting of Jews in Gaza, every few minutes the newscaster would repeat that "this is the end of the occupation in Gaza and of the settlements there, which are illegal according to international law." To further reduce sympathy for the settlers, the British reporters would keep repeating that had the deportees been Arabs, they would have gotten much harsher treatment. Then, they proceeded to describe this harsher treatment, often aided by Arab guests.
The British media had also, in the days previous to the uprooting, interviewed many on the Israeli Left - such as ex-minister Yuli Tamir and the editor of the Jerusalem Report - who would gloat about the taboo that is being broken, which, they said, would make it easier to uproot Jews next time around. The Israeli leftist commentators also gleefully reported that, as a result of the uprooting, the Israeli public will hate the settlers even more, because of their invoking of the Holocaust, because of their use of children, because of their violence, because of their fanatic religious fundamentalism - all these, too, they said, would make it easier to uproot Jews next time around.
I think the main conclusion is that it is crucial to spread, at home and abroad, the fact that the uprooting has been not only a crime against basic human rights, but against international law, which obliges all nations to urgently encourage the dense settlement of Jews in Western Palestine. The uprooting has been exactly the opposite of this. International law explicitly forbids the transfer of the land out of Jewish control, in perpetuity, and it gives only Jews political rights in Western Palestine. In this transgression of international law, the uprooting has been a major crime. This is particularly so because the land transferred was public land and it was transferred to the enemy.
One way to spread these facts is to demand with great fanfare, in every forum and court of law, the immediate return of the land to Jewish control for Jewish settlement and for rebuilding what has just been destroyed. The relevant section from the Palestine Mandate should be cited, with article 80 (chapter 12) of the UN Charter that makes these dictates of the League of Nations valid in the life of the UN, and the confirmation of this principle by the International Court of Justice in the analogous case of South-West Africa. This, I think, should be the main and urgent mission of all Zion-loving Jews and non-Jews.
It is also important to repeat that there is no need for territorial continuity (there are many examples, such as Northern Ireland) in order to maintain a Jewish democratic state. Arabs in Western Palestine could vote for a parliament in Amman and Jews, for a parliament in Jerusalem.
It is not for nothing that the Israeli authorities have, for years, stopped defending on radio and TV the legality of the settlements, even though the alleged illegality of the settlement has been, and still is, the main criticism of Israel in all forums. Only by demonizing and deligitimizing the settlers, and by hiding the true international law, was it possible to commit this crime in the face of public opinion at home and abroad. Not to proclaim international law now amounts to repeating the same mistake.
Further Reading:
http://www.think-israel.org/rostowNR.html
http://www.think-israel.org/shifftan.belligerentoccupation.html
http://www.think-israel.org/shifftan.uprooting.html
http://www.a7.org//News/News.aspx/111824
http://www.hazofe.co.il/web/katava6....
http://www.nativ.cc/102/grief.htm
http://www.think-israel.org/grief.transfer.html
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2751/is_n33/ai_14538698/print
http://www.geocities.com/israelwhitepaper/print.html