"The Legal Foundation and Borders of Israel under International Law" offers a comprehensive and systematic legal treatment of Jewish national and political rights to all of the Land of Israel. The author, Howard Grief, is the originator of the thesis that de jure sovereignty over the entire Land of Israel and Palestine was vested in the Jewish People as a result of the San Remo Resolution adopted at the San Remo Peace Conference on April 24, 1920. Yuval Ne'eman, a former Israeli government minister said: "For about 400 years, the Ottoman Empire ruled over all the Balkans, the Middle East and North Africa. The struggle for the liberation of those areas began in the Balkan lands at the beginning of the 19th century and ended in 1913. In the First World War, the job [of liberation] was completed and Turkey was reduced to the Anatolian Peninsula. All of this was contained in the San Remo Agreement of April 1920. The fact that it was precisely at that place and time that Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and the states of the Arabian Peninsula obtained [thanks to the victory of the Principal Allied Powers over the Central Powers] the very same liberation from the Ottoman yoke, strengthens the approach of Grief who presents the proof for the inclusion of Palestine [i.e., the Jewish People] in the list of beneficiaries in regard to the "settlement [or disposition] of the inheritance of the Ottoman Empire." Dr. Ya'akov Meron, former Adviser on the Law of Arab Countries at the Ministry of Justice, Jerusalem, Israel and Professor of Moslem Law in the Faculties of Law of Jerusalem and Tel-Aviv wrote: "The Legal Foundation and Borders of Israel under International Law" is a forceful and erudite pleading for the respecting of the letter and spirit of the law, not only Israeli law but also the international law that came into existence in the wake of World War I. This law, now largely forgotten or neglected, is still relevant today in regard to the status and borders of the Land of Israel. The author makes a thorough analysis of the international documents which recognized the rights of the Jewish People to the land of their ancestors, most significantly the San Remo Resolution on Palestine, agreed to by the victorious Allies at the Peace Conference of April 1920.
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12 of 15 people found the following review helpful
By M. D Roberts
Format:Hardcover
This excellent detailed study by Professor Howard Grief addressing both Israel's legal foundation and borders is an absolute must read. The culmination of 25 years of study addresses a plethora of issues including the San Remo peace conference & a detailed appraisal of the Palestine Mandate, including its original intent, interpretation and application.
The study pulls no punches in showing that the Balfour Declaration, Mandate and League of Nations were intent upon the rebirth of not just a Jewish national home but a Jewish state based upon a historical formula founded upon the 1st/2nd Temple period territories, including lands up to the Litani Valley in present day Lebanon. The present borders of Israel are shown to be clearly not those originally designated for the Jewish people by the aforementioned international agreements.
Detailed reference reveals how it was originally agreed between Britain & France that the borders of a Jewish Palestine would be based on the historical or Biblical formula, "from Dan to Beersheba", a phrase appearing several times in the Bible.
This shown to have been interpreted up until 1920 by Prime Minister Lloyd George & other British officials to mean that Palestine would include all the lands or regions historically associated with the Jewish People. That is all territory which at one time or other was conquered, settled & governed by the Israelites in the 1st /2nd Temple periods.
The historical formula for determining these boundaries was accepted at the San Remo Peace Conference & referred to to in the Mandate Charter, which referred to the historical connection of the Jewish People with Palestine. The British themselves relying on George Adam Smith's "Atlas of the Historical Geography of the Holy Land", published in 1915, in particular on Plate No. 34 that depicted the territory under David and Solomon.
The book makes sobering reading as the British are shown to have not abided by their obligations under the Mandate, instead giving precedence to their own political self interests, regional expedience & their relationship with the Arab/Islamic world. The influence of French interests in the region also playing a considerable part as Western entities reneged upon their responsibilities & obligations pertaining to a Jewish home/state in what was Palestine.
The reader is shown how international agreements then made & still make it quite clear today, that Israel had/has a perfect legal right to settle land in the disputed territories in 1967, since this was the right assigned to the Jewish people under International Law. Law which continues to be in force despite the political nuances of today which are expedient to the larger pro-Arab international community.
Self serving political machinations & expedience are again shown when, under Article 5 of the Mandate Britain - which was not allowed to partition the land - Britain then did so by severing 77% to create the Arab state of Transjordan which, from the moment of its creation, was closed to all Jewish migration and settlement - a clear betrayal of the British promise the tones of which resound even now.
Under Article 6 of the Mandate Britain,was supposed to encourage Jewish immigration % settlement all over the now disputed territory - a Jewish right which exists to this day under International Law, despite the Mandate treaty's enactment in 1948.
Yet Britain is shown to have reneged upon this responsibility too. British foreign policy of the time, extending to the present day, shown to be that of appeasing the Arab/Islamic world as it appears to continually sacrifice Israel upon the altar of political expedience.
In November 1938 the British 'Cabinet Committee For Palestine' held a meeting which effectively resulted in the reneging upon of the Balfour Declaration & the League of Nations Mandate. Foreign Secretary, Lord Halifax, told the Committee that "the Government would have to choose between it's commitments to the world of Jewry & it's commitments to the world of Islam..." It was subsequently decided that Britain could not afford to antagonise the Muslim world. This resulted in the British White Paper of 1939 which served to appease the Arab/Islamic world & severely restricted Jewish immigration to Palestine. This was the British policy as the Holocaust descended upon the Jews of Europe.
It is virtually impossible to do justice to the vast amount of evidence available in this 700+ page study. I can but highly recommend this work to anyone interesting in the Jewish state, the Arab-Israeli conflict & the manner in which the latter is portrayed/perceived in our day.
With such a vast array of facts at your fingertips the individual is left to ponder a number of issues. Not least being how the international community has seemingly side-stepped history & embraced the creation of a Palestinian state in territories promised to the Jewish people & to which they have a heritage spanning many thousands of years. The prerequisite of such a state's creation being the removal/ethnic cleansing of the entire Jewish presence from these areas.
With due reference to the contents of this study, the conviction that Jewish settlements in the West Bank are illegal is now so commonly accepted, it hardly seems as though the matter is even open for discussion. Such a case is blown completely out of the water by reference to the factual history. Though routinely referred to nowadays as "Palestinian" land, at no point in history has Jerusalem or the West Bank (Judea and Samaria) been under Palestinian sovereignty in any sense of the term.
In the face of skilfully orchestrated revisionist history and a tidal wave of anti-Israeli propaganda, this compelling account shows the reader is shown how the public is clearly being completely and utterly deceived by the manner in which the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is being presented to them. This is a book that desperately needs to be read & re-read. International leaders, including those within Israel itself, need to avail themselves of the information provided here.
The study pulls no punches in showing that the Balfour Declaration, Mandate and League of Nations were intent upon the rebirth of not just a Jewish national home but a Jewish state based upon a historical formula founded upon the 1st/2nd Temple period territories, including lands up to the Litani Valley in present day Lebanon. The present borders of Israel are shown to be clearly not those originally designated for the Jewish people by the aforementioned international agreements.
Detailed reference reveals how it was originally agreed between Britain & France that the borders of a Jewish Palestine would be based on the historical or Biblical formula, "from Dan to Beersheba", a phrase appearing several times in the Bible.
This shown to have been interpreted up until 1920 by Prime Minister Lloyd George & other British officials to mean that Palestine would include all the lands or regions historically associated with the Jewish People. That is all territory which at one time or other was conquered, settled & governed by the Israelites in the 1st /2nd Temple periods.
The historical formula for determining these boundaries was accepted at the San Remo Peace Conference & referred to to in the Mandate Charter, which referred to the historical connection of the Jewish People with Palestine. The British themselves relying on George Adam Smith's "Atlas of the Historical Geography of the Holy Land", published in 1915, in particular on Plate No. 34 that depicted the territory under David and Solomon.
The book makes sobering reading as the British are shown to have not abided by their obligations under the Mandate, instead giving precedence to their own political self interests, regional expedience & their relationship with the Arab/Islamic world. The influence of French interests in the region also playing a considerable part as Western entities reneged upon their responsibilities & obligations pertaining to a Jewish home/state in what was Palestine.
The reader is shown how international agreements then made & still make it quite clear today, that Israel had/has a perfect legal right to settle land in the disputed territories in 1967, since this was the right assigned to the Jewish people under International Law. Law which continues to be in force despite the political nuances of today which are expedient to the larger pro-Arab international community.
Self serving political machinations & expedience are again shown when, under Article 5 of the Mandate Britain - which was not allowed to partition the land - Britain then did so by severing 77% to create the Arab state of Transjordan which, from the moment of its creation, was closed to all Jewish migration and settlement - a clear betrayal of the British promise the tones of which resound even now.
Under Article 6 of the Mandate Britain,was supposed to encourage Jewish immigration % settlement all over the now disputed territory - a Jewish right which exists to this day under International Law, despite the Mandate treaty's enactment in 1948.
Yet Britain is shown to have reneged upon this responsibility too. British foreign policy of the time, extending to the present day, shown to be that of appeasing the Arab/Islamic world as it appears to continually sacrifice Israel upon the altar of political expedience.
In November 1938 the British 'Cabinet Committee For Palestine' held a meeting which effectively resulted in the reneging upon of the Balfour Declaration & the League of Nations Mandate. Foreign Secretary, Lord Halifax, told the Committee that "the Government would have to choose between it's commitments to the world of Jewry & it's commitments to the world of Islam..." It was subsequently decided that Britain could not afford to antagonise the Muslim world. This resulted in the British White Paper of 1939 which served to appease the Arab/Islamic world & severely restricted Jewish immigration to Palestine. This was the British policy as the Holocaust descended upon the Jews of Europe.
It is virtually impossible to do justice to the vast amount of evidence available in this 700+ page study. I can but highly recommend this work to anyone interesting in the Jewish state, the Arab-Israeli conflict & the manner in which the latter is portrayed/perceived in our day.
With such a vast array of facts at your fingertips the individual is left to ponder a number of issues. Not least being how the international community has seemingly side-stepped history & embraced the creation of a Palestinian state in territories promised to the Jewish people & to which they have a heritage spanning many thousands of years. The prerequisite of such a state's creation being the removal/ethnic cleansing of the entire Jewish presence from these areas.
With due reference to the contents of this study, the conviction that Jewish settlements in the West Bank are illegal is now so commonly accepted, it hardly seems as though the matter is even open for discussion. Such a case is blown completely out of the water by reference to the factual history. Though routinely referred to nowadays as "Palestinian" land, at no point in history has Jerusalem or the West Bank (Judea and Samaria) been under Palestinian sovereignty in any sense of the term.
In the face of skilfully orchestrated revisionist history and a tidal wave of anti-Israeli propaganda, this compelling account shows the reader is shown how the public is clearly being completely and utterly deceived by the manner in which the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is being presented to them. This is a book that desperately needs to be read & re-read. International leaders, including those within Israel itself, need to avail themselves of the information provided here.
8 of 11 people found the following review helpful
By GEMI
Format:Hardcover
Howard Grief has written the definitive volume on Israel and its relation to the seemingly fluid thing called "International Law." He documents the division of the Middle-East after WW1 and how and why the Jews were given Palestine. The book is cleanly presented -- being divided up into five sections -- and is sourced meticulously.
No doubt some will go the usual route and resort to calling it "Zionist propaganda", but it is difficult to not be a Zionist after seeing, through this book, the massive injustice being done to the Jews and their state.
As said, the book has 5 sections: the origins of Jewish legal rights, why those rights are still valid, how they became obscured, and now, denied, the usurping of the Palestinian national identity by Arabs who had previously despised the term, and how the Arab-Israeli conflict was predicted and solved -- with legal and historical precedents -- all those decades ago. The failure of leaders, including Israel's, to follow the law is the real "obstacle to peace."
The fact is this: no one even comes close to discrediting anything written in this book. Instead, those who might try, like John Quigley, are shown to be -- with overwhelming evidence -- frauds, liars and near-antisemites. How much evidence? The book has 650 pages of it...
Howard Grief's book lays to rest, without hesitation, restraint or doubt, some of the biggest and most pervasive myths of the modern day. Myths like "Israel is illegal, there's an occupation, settlements are illegal." All discussed, all definitively disproven.
In fact, this is perhaps the book's only drawback. The evidence and content can be so overwhelming at times, forcing one to have to back a few pages and re-read before beginning to understand what Grief is getting to. However this can also be seen as an example of just how thorough it is: sometimes you get so lost in the myriad of details and evidence you forget about the big picture.
This book should be read by everybody. Everybody. Politicians, journalists, lawyers, analysts, everybody. What it documents is truly unique, and what it fights against is so sadly not: the denial of Jewish rights.
An amazing book, written by an amazing man, and an amazing lawyer. Absolutely highest recommendations.
No doubt some will go the usual route and resort to calling it "Zionist propaganda", but it is difficult to not be a Zionist after seeing, through this book, the massive injustice being done to the Jews and their state.
As said, the book has 5 sections: the origins of Jewish legal rights, why those rights are still valid, how they became obscured, and now, denied, the usurping of the Palestinian national identity by Arabs who had previously despised the term, and how the Arab-Israeli conflict was predicted and solved -- with legal and historical precedents -- all those decades ago. The failure of leaders, including Israel's, to follow the law is the real "obstacle to peace."
The fact is this: no one even comes close to discrediting anything written in this book. Instead, those who might try, like John Quigley, are shown to be -- with overwhelming evidence -- frauds, liars and near-antisemites. How much evidence? The book has 650 pages of it...
Howard Grief's book lays to rest, without hesitation, restraint or doubt, some of the biggest and most pervasive myths of the modern day. Myths like "Israel is illegal, there's an occupation, settlements are illegal." All discussed, all definitively disproven.
In fact, this is perhaps the book's only drawback. The evidence and content can be so overwhelming at times, forcing one to have to back a few pages and re-read before beginning to understand what Grief is getting to. However this can also be seen as an example of just how thorough it is: sometimes you get so lost in the myriad of details and evidence you forget about the big picture.
This book should be read by everybody. Everybody. Politicians, journalists, lawyers, analysts, everybody. What it documents is truly unique, and what it fights against is so sadly not: the denial of Jewish rights.
An amazing book, written by an amazing man, and an amazing lawyer. Absolutely highest recommendations.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
By Sam I am
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
I enjoyed Grief's writings and research work; the findings and ideas are fascinating and his legal arguments shade a new light on the Mideast conflict. It is a bit long and you need to go back and re-read some portions to stay abreast of the discussion. Overall a nice book although a bit long.
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