To the Editor,
Re: United Nations backed forming state of Israel, Letters, Feb. 16.
The United Nations did indeed support the formation of the state of Israel, but it also supported an independent state for the Palestinians.
The modern state of Israel was unilaterally declared by the Jewish Council in May 1948 in part of the British Mandated Territory of Palestine.
Its declaration was loosely based on the previous year’s UN Resolution 181 Partition Plan that provided for independent Jewish and Arab states with international jurisdiction over Jerusalem.
The partition plan gave 56 per cent of the land to the Jews even though they only made up 33 per cent of the population. The Arabs understandably objected and civil war broke out.
Since that time, wars, ethnic cleansing and terrorism has marred the peaceful development of both societies as Israel pursues its duplicitous and illegal attempts to expand its territory over the whole of the former mandated territory.
In 2004, in another attempt to settle the dispute over territory, the UN requested that the International Court of Justice rule on the Palestinians entitlement to statehood.
The court held “that the right of self determinations as an established right under international law applies to the territory and to the Palestinian people.
Accordingly, the exercise of such right entitles the Palestinian people to a state of their own as originally envisaged in Resolution 181.”
Until Israel recognizes the limitations on its borders established by the UN and international law, it remains an illegal regime and the international community, if we are indeed a community of laws rather than warmongering opportunists, should condemn its continuing oppression of the Palestinian people within the occupied territories.
Liz Fox
Lantzville