United Nations Human Rights Council
“International Fact-Finding Mission
on Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory
Submission from Professor Geoffrey Alderman
Introduction
1. This document evidences the submission of Professor Geoffrey Alderman
to the United Nations Human Rights Council’s investigation entitled
“International Fact-Finding Mission on Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory
2. This submission is made by Professor Geoffrey Alderman exclusively in
his personal capacity.
3. This submission addresses only the issue of the legality of Israeli
settlements in the territory commonly referred to as “The West Bank,” more
especially in the context of the Human Rights Council’s reference to “occupied
Palestinian territory.”
Professor
Geoffrey Alderman
4. Professor Geoffrey Alderman is a graduate of the University of Oxford
5. Professor Alderman is a much-published academic specialising, inter
alia, in the history of the Jewish people.
He is also a prize-winning journalist.
6. Professor Alderman has held senior posts in the University
of London , Middlesex
University and Touro
College (New York University
of Buckingham (England
7. Professor Alderman is an elected Fellow of the Royal Historical Society
(UK) and a Life Fellow of the Royal Society for Arts (UK).
8. Further information about Professor Alderman may be found at his
website: www.geoffreyalderman.com
.
Submission
9. Persons who are Jewish by virtue of ethnicity have the right of
settlement in Judea and Samaria (the territory
otherwise known as the West Bank ). This right
derives from the precise terms of the Palestine Mandate (1922) as given to the United Kingdom by the League
of Nations . Article 6 of that Mandate obligated the mandatory
power “to facilitate Jewish immigration under suitable conditions and [to]
… encourage… close settlement by Jews on the land, including State lands
and waste lands not required for public purposes”.
10. “The land” in this context referred to the land within the geographical
limits of the entire territory encompassed by the Mandate, and included -
therefore – the West Bank in its totality.
11. Consequently, this right was lawfully exercised by Jewish people during
the period 1922-1948. Its exercise was unlawfully suppressed by the government
of Jordan , which controlled
the West Bank from 1948 until 1967, when it
fell under the control of the government of the State of Israel. This control
has enabled the right to be exercised once more.
12. It is important to remember in this context that the Palestine Mandate
has never been rescinded. On the contrary, the rights of ethnic Jews, as
referred to in the Mandate, have been expressly guaranteed by the founding
Charter of the United Nations Organisation.
13. Article 80 of the Charter of the United Nations states that “Nothing in
this Chapter [dealing with the establishment of Trusteeships and Trustee
Agreements] shall be construed in or of itself to alter in any manner the
rights whatsoever of… any peoples or the terms of existing international
instruments to which Members of the United Nations may respectively be
parties.” [author’s emphasis]
14. No Trustee Agreement has ever been entered into relating to the Palestine
Mandate, and the Mandate itself has neither been revoked nor suspended. It is,
therefore, in pursuance of Article 80 of the UN Charter, an “existing
international instrument,” whose efficacy and purport that Article intentionally
guarantees.
15. The government of the State of Israel – which currently controls and
administers parts of the territory known as the West Bank
– is, therefore, under a legal obligation to ensure that the right of ethnic
Jews to settle within that territory is honoured and facilitated.
16. As matter of international law, Israel is, furthermore, fully entitled
and indeed obligated not merely to permit the voluntary settlement of ethnic
Jews beyond the so-called Green Line, but to take any and all such other steps
as may be deemed necessary to protect ethnic Jewish populations so settled.
17. These steps may include the building of walls, fences and ramparts, the
imposition of curfews, the suppression of assemblies, the erection of
checkpoints and gun emplacements, and the restraint of materials likely to
incite violence against persons of Jewish ethnicity.
Conclusion
18. Professor Alderman will be pleased to dilate upon this Submission
should the Human Rights Council so wish.
19. This Submission may be made public, provided that it is published in
full and without amendment of any kind.
Professor
Geoffrey Alderman
22
October 2012
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