It was 94 years ago that the League of Nations marked a milestone for the Jewish people on the establishment of the State of Israel. On July 24, 1922, the League of Nations, the precursor to the United Nations, issued a formal recognition of the Jewish nation’s connection to the Land of Israel, and approved the decision to establish a Jewish national homeland in the historical land of Israel.
The League of Nations also formulated the terms of the Palestine Mandate, under the auspices of Great Britain, with the aim of “placing the country under such political, administrative and economic conditions as will secure the establishment of the Jewish national home and the development of self-governing institutions.” “Palestine” referred at the time to a geographic region that included the historical land of Israel, without any clearly defined ethnic or political connotations; at the time, “Palestinians” referred to both Jews and Arabs residing in the land.
The international community thereby recognized the ancestral rights of the Jewish people in their original homeland, and the fact that, although they were forcibly removed in the past, their presence in and bond with the land was never severed. The mandates of Mesopotamia, Syria, and Palestine were assigned by the Supreme Court of the League of Nations at its San Remo meeting in April 1920. Negotiations with regard to the Palestine mandate were successfully concluded in May 1922, and approved by the Council of the League of Nations in July, 1922. The mandates for Palestine and Syria came into force simultaneously on Sept. 29, 1922.
In April 1947, the British government requested that the “Question of Palestine” be placed on the agenda of the United Nations General Assembly. On Nov. 29, 1947, the UN General Assembly officially voted to partition Palestine into two states, one Jewish and one Arab, thus reaffirming a Jewish right to self-determination in the land of Israel. The Jewish community accepted the plan, while the Arab community rejected it.
The dream of a sovereign Jewish nation, to be a member of the global family of nations, became a reality in 1948, with the establishment of the State of Israel. In 1949, Israel became a member of the United Nations. Both the League of Nations statement supporting the Jewish homeland in the land of Israel and Israel’s Declaration of Independence state that the rights of all people, irrespective of race or religion, will be safeguarded. Today, Israel’s 1.7 million Arab citizens (22 percent of the overall population) enjoy full rights and liberties.
This historic affirmation of Jewish self-determination in our ancestral homeland paved the way for the millennia-old dream of a sovereign Jewish nation to be realized in 1948, when the State of Israel was born. As we come closer to the 70th birthday of the state of Israel, these key facts on this decision from the “Mandate for Palestine” are well worth remembering.
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