Summary
International-law authority quoted at length in the United Nations study for the argument that the Mandate for Palestine was invalid on three grounds (Origins and Evolution of the Palestine Problem: 1917-1947 (Part I), lines 615-639).
Details
- First ground, as quoted in the study: by endorsing the Balfour Declaration and the Jewish national home, the Mandate “violated the sovereignty of the people of Palestine and their natural rights of independence and self-determination”; the League of Nations did not possess the power, any more than the British Government did, to dispose of Palestine or grant Jews political or territorial rights there, and in so far as the Mandate purported to recognize rights for alien Jews in Palestine “it was null and void” (Origins and Evolution of the Palestine Problem: 1917-1947 (Part I), lines 619-623).
- Second ground: the Mandate violated Article 22 of the Covenant in spirit and letter — it was conceived for an alien people’s interest rather than its inhabitants’ well-being and development, and it granted the Mandatory “full powers of legislation and administration” instead of limiting the Mandate to temporary advice and assistance, which Cattan calls an abuse of the Mandate’s purpose and “a perversion of its raison d’être”, in marked contrast to the Mandate for Syria and Lebanon of 24 July 1922 (Origins and Evolution of the Palestine Problem: 1917-1947 (Part I), lines 623-635).
- Third ground: the Mandate’s endorsement and implementation of the Balfour Declaration conflicted with the assurances and pledges given to the Arabs during the First World War; denying the Palestine Arabs independence and subjecting their country to a foreign people’s immigration were a breach of those pledges (Origins and Evolution of the Palestine Problem: 1917-1947 (Part I), lines 635-639).
- Within the quotation, Lord Islington is cited for the judgement: “The Palestine Mandate is a real distortion of the mandatory system” (Origins and Evolution of the Palestine Problem: 1917-1947 (Part I), lines 623-631).
Related pages
Mandate for Palestine, Origins and Evolution of the Palestine Problem: 1917-1947 (Part I)