Why Israel simultaneously both is and is not a "Jewish State"
March 17, 2010 - 5:28pm
[NOTE: I delivered this talk at a luncheon with Tal Becker as the other speaker at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, March 16, 2010.]
In my remarks today I want to look at the evolution of the concept of Israel as a national home for the Jewish people and a “Jewish state” in international law, then at Israel's character as a Jewish state, and finally at the way in which the occupation negates that character. My broadest point is that at every level Israel's status as a national home for the Jewish people and as a Jewish state is dependent on the creation of a Palestinian state to live alongside Israel in peace and security.
I. Israel as a Jewish state in international law
The Balfour Declaration of November 2, 1917 begins with the phrase, "His Majesty's government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people…" There are at least two significant aspects to this language worth noting: the Declaration commits to "a national home for the Jewish people," but not to "a Jewish state," and to "a national home," but not "the national home." National home might be taken to imply state, but it might mean many other things as well. Many have noted the irony of no overt reference to the overwhelming majority of the population of Palestine, the Palestinian Arabs, in the Declaration, and the moral, political and legal difficulties attached to the United Kingdom making such a pledge regarding a territory over which it had, the time, no legal authority and in disregard of the wishes of its population. Nonetheless, the Declaration introduces the concept into international relations in a most decisive manner.
The text of the Mandate for Palestine adopted by the Council of the League of Nations on July 24, 1922 made the project a practical reality rather than simply a rhetorical position by holding that "the Principal Allied Powers have also agreed that the Mandatory should be responsible for putting [The Balfour Declaration] into effect." Article II repeats the language of the Declaration that, "The Mandatory shall be responsible for placing the country under such political, administrative and economic conditions as will secure the establishment of the Jewish national home, as laid down in the preamble, and the development of self-governing institutions, and also for safeguarding the civil and religious rights of all the inhabitants of Palestine, irrespective of race and religion."...READ MORE
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