by Menachem Rahat
A few days ago, without our even being aware of it, the 95th anniversary of the San Remo Conference was marked, where the League of Nations signed an international deed regarding the Jewish people’s ownership of its land.
San Remo. Who
remembers – who knows about it? A poll that was held of a representative sample
of the Jewish public in Israel on the question of what was the meaning of the name
San Remo, reveals that only six out of every thousand Israelis are aware of its
meaning. Amazing.
It is true
that the event this week, more precisely on the 25th of April,
marked something that had occurred exactly 95 years ago, but its impact in
international law is alive and well even now and there is, therefore, significance
that touches on the foundation of our rights under the Middle Eastern sun.
In other
words: the international congress that was convened in the small Italian city of
San Remo on April 25th, 1920, signed the first deed in two thousand
years that granted the Jewish people total and exclusive ownership, with no co-owners,
of the Land of Israel, from then to eternity.
And
nevertheless, it is surprising that only a few Israelis are aware of this
internationally recognized legal foundation, cast in concrete, regarding our essential
rights here. But what is the big surprise? In the schools they do not deal with
San Remo, even tangentially, and do not equip the students with facts regarding
our legal standing in this tract of land. What is this like? It is like the
person who lives in an apartment without holding the document that constitutes the
deed of ownership on it. So here, contrary to the apartment dweller in the
example, the People of Israel actually does have an internationally recognized
deed of ownership, since San Remo, April, 1920.
Of course,
the People of Israel itself does not need this deed. Its original deed is written
in the Torah, repeated in the Prophets and again in the Writings. It is first
seen as the divine promise to our father Abraham. But in actuality, there are,
among the faithful in Israel, those who actually do need the deed that was
obtained in San Remo.
“The
Enlightened Kingdoms of San Remo”
And why is
this so, if the Bible is truly our deed? Because those who felt that perhaps
the activity of the Zionist movement to settle the Land of Israel in the
beginning of the past century was a sort of violation of an oath (according to
one Talmudic legend, which did not become religious law, and forbade the resettlement
of the Land of Israel, since this would be a sort of “scaling the wall”:
rebellion against the nations of the world). At San Remo they understood that
this decision negates the concept of “scaling the wall” and opens wide the
gates to the Land.
And this is
how the greatest authority of Jewish law of that generation, Rabbi Meir Simha HaCohen
from Dvinsk, writer of Meshech Hochma and Ohr Sameah expressed himself, after
the great turning point in San Remo: “… many rabbis were against it, and even
those who in their hearts wished to embrace it, did not speak out in its favor,
because they feared… to violate the three oaths in Writings 111:1 but now,
Divine Providence has changed things, with the gathering of enlightened kings
in San Remo, the commandment was given that the Land of Israel will be for the People
of Israel, and since the fear of violating a vow has passed, and with the
permission of the kings – the commandment to settle the Land of Israel, whose
weight is equal to all other commandments in the Torah, has resumed its position…
and every person is obligated to support this commandment to the best of his
ability”.
San Remo is a
turning point in the history of the People of Israel in its Land, also from a
religious point of view. And these days, when we mark the anniversary of this momentous
turning point, we must return to it. A little history: In January 1920, two
years after the defeat of the ancient empires in the First World War, the
League of Nations, which comprised 51 countries, was established. These
countries dealt with the fate of the territories left by the four empires that
were dismantled: the German Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Czarist and Ottoman Empire,
which left behind vast territories with no ownership in the Middle East. This
dismantling generated new nation states: Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia,
Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia.
Only the question of the territories
under Ottoman rule in Asia was left: Syria, Iraq and Palestine. It was to solve
this matter that the San Remo Conference was convened, which decided to divide
the territory between France and Britain, which would hold them in temporary trusteeship
for the states that would arise in them.
The Conference had two documents that
deal precisely with the subject under discussion: the Sykes-Picot Agreement, which
was signed between France and Britain in 1916, regarding the division of the
Middle East between them after the victory; and the Balfour Declaration, in
which Britain declared that she sees as desirable, the establishment of a
national home for the Jewish People in the Land of Israel.
This was how the division of the spoils
of war was decided upon between the two superpowers who would take upon
themselves temporary trusteeship: Syria and Lebanon would be under French
control; Iraq and Palestine within its biblical boundaries would be under
British control. Before the decision was taken, 3 delegations appeared before the
conference: two Arab (and neither of them was Palestinian, because at that time
the Palestinian people did not exist, and because in the Arabs’ eyes, Palestine
was considered part of Syria ever since the Persian conquest in the 7th
century), which were only interested in the fate of Syria and Lebanon; and the
Jewish, Zionist delegation, headed by Haim Weitzman, which sought to have the
Mandate of Palestine given to the British, only so that they would fulfill
their obligation according to the Balfour Declaration.
The “Palestinians” were invented 40
years later
In the absence of any objection to
Weitzman’s request, it was decided unanimously to respond positively to the
request. The 51 countries of the League of Nations supported the decision, as
well as the United States’ two houses of Congress (which was not then a member
of the organization). Even in the prologue to the decision, the Conference recognizes
the Jewish People’s historical connection to Palestine as a basis for building the
Land anew. On the other hand, the decision promises “civil and religious rights”
to all of the residents of the Land. And note: it does not speak in any way of
political rights and the word “Arabs” is not mentioned at all, rather, “residents
of the Land”. Only more than 40 years later was the “Palestinian” people invented.
The San Remo decision became a binding
international document. But unfortunately, two of its original supporters
ignored this. Most of the 12 million European Jews preferred their countries to
the Land of Israel, which opened its arms to accept them, except for a few who
responded to the call and immigrated to the Land of Israel (which, perhaps doomed
the European Jews to the horrors of the holocaust); the British wantonly partitioned
the Land, and handed over the entire eastern part to the Hashemite dynasty, and
in violation of the commitment, supported the battle against the Jews.
Until today, San Remo represents a legal,
foundational cornerstone, from the point of view of international law, determining
the Jews’ exclusive rights to build their state in the Land of Israel. Last
Shabbat marked the 95th anniversary of the reconfirmation of the irrevocable
Jewish rights to the Land.
Menachem Rahat
Source: http://www.inn.co.il/Articles/Article.aspx/13499
Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.
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