Palestinian Authority Calls On UN to Remove 500,000 Israelis From Judea and Samaria Within Six Months

There are 500,000 Israelis living in Judea and Samaria, now called by most of the world the “West Bank,” as Jordan renamed the area in 1950 in a transparent attempt, alas quite successful, to efface the Jewish connection to the land by sleight-of-word. Jews have lived in this territory uninterruptedly for the past 3500 years, save between 1949 and 1967, when Jordan made it Judenrein. Judea and Samaria, not Tel Aviv and Haifa, are the places where Jewish history was made. The League of Nations recognized that when it included Judea and Samaria in the territory assigned to the Mandate for Palestine in 1922, which was then supposed to become, in time, the Jewish state of Israel. But in the 1948 war between Israel and five Arab armies, Jordan’s Arab Legion, British-officered, with John Bagot Glubb — known as “Glubb Pasha” — at its head, managed to hold onto that part of the Mandate’s territory. For 19 years, Jordan ruled that area as a “military occupier.”

Then, following Israel’s spectacular victory in the Six-Day War, the Jewish state managed to push out the Jordanians, and at last Israel was in a position to exercise its claim, based on the Mandate for Palestine, to that area. Jews began late in 1967 to settle in Judea and Samaria, on state and waste lands, and on lands bought from, or abandoned by, Arab owners. The Israeli government did not “transfer its population” into that area — such forced transfers are illegal under Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention — Israeli Jews moved into it of their own accord.

Now the PA has called on the UN General Assembly to pass a resolution demanding that Israel remove within six months all 500,000 of its citizens currently living in Judea and Samaria, or, as much of the world has learned to call it, the “West Bank.” More on this preposterous demand can be found here: “PA Wants UN to Order Removal of 500,000 Jews From West Bank,” JNS, September 9, 2024:

The Palestinian Authority (PA) is circulating a draft resolution asking the United Nations General Assembly to urge Israel to withdraw from the West Bank and remove some 500,000 Israeli citizens living in the territory within six months.

According to a report by Israel’s Channel 12 on Sunday, the resolution, which cites a July 19 advisory opinion by the International Court of Justice in The Hague, is expected to be brought to a vote next week.

The 79th Session of the UN General Assembly is scheduled to open on Sept. 10.

In addition to demanding an end to Israel’s civilian and military presence, the draft text urges UN member states to impose sanctions on officials in Jerusalem, banning trade with Jewish businesses in the West Bank and blocking weapons sales to Israel if they might be used in the area.

Israel’s Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon attacked the PA’s move and called on the 193 members of the General Assembly to “outright reject this shameful resolution and instead adopt a resolution condemning Hamas, calling on it to release all the hostages immediately.”

“Let it be clear: Nothing will stop nor deter Israel in its mission to bring back all the hostages and defeat Hamas,” the Israeli diplomat stated.

“If this resolution passes in the General Assembly, exactly one year after the Oct. 7 massacre, the most brutal massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, it would be a reward for terrorism and a message to the world that the barbaric massacre of children, the rape of women, and the kidnapping of innocent civilians is a profitable move,” added Danon….

On July 19, the International Court of Justice, the principal judicial arm of the UN, issued a non-binding, 83-page opinion declaring Israel’s 57-year “occupation” of the West Bank to be “unlawful.”

The ICJ is flatly wrong. Israel’s possession of the West Bank is neither an “occupation” nor is it “unlawful.” Israel is not the military occupier of, but the rightful claimant to the West Bank, according to the territorial maps of the League of Nations’ Mandate for Palestine. No matter how often we hear the fixed phrase “occupied West Bank,” we must wearily repeat that the territory is not now “occupied,” but in 1967, by force of arms, was returned to its rightful possessor, Israel. If it is argued that the UN has no need to respect the League of Nations’ system of mandates, we can point to Article 80 of the UN Charter, known informally as the Jewish People’s Article, which provides that “nothing in Chapter XII of the Charter should be construed to alter the rights of States or peoples or the terms of existing international instruments pending the conclusion of Trusteeship Agreements, and then only with respect to matters dealt with in the Agreements.” This means that even after the demise of the League of Nations, the provisions of the Mandate for Palestine must be upheld by the UN.

The non-binding ruling [by the ICJ] claimed that “Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and the regime associated with them, have been established and are being maintained in violation of international law.”

Again, the ICJ is ignoring the Mandate for Palestine’s explicit provisions. The towns and cities — the ICJ prefers the slyly pejorative “settlements” — in Judea and Samaria are built on territory assigned in the Mandate to the future Jewish state. The judges of the ICJ clearly need to reread – or possibly read for the first time — both the Mandate for Palestine and Article 80 of the UN Charter. Fortunately, the ICJ’s opinions are non-binding.

Jerusalem is “obliged to bring an end to its presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory as rapidly as possible,” the UN court added….

There is no “Occupied Palestinian Territory” in Israel. Israelis are entitled to live — as long as they pay for the land, or settle on state and waste lands — anywhere “from the river to the sea.”

Perhaps this latest absurd demand that Israel uproot 500,000 Israelis from their homes within six months will finally convince Washington, which keeps wanting to believe that the PA is a force for “moderation” even though it has still not condemned the Hamas attacks on October 7, and continues both to incentivize and reward terrorism through its “Pay-For-Slay” program, of its deep malevolence toward the Jewish state.

The resolution is so preposterous that it may even push some Muslim states, such as the UAE and Morocco, to abstain from voting. It would be good if the entire West, including countries that have exhibited a palpable want of sympathy for Israel as it fights not just Hamas in Gaza, but also Hezbollah in Lebanon, and the Houthis in Yemen, in the face of such a resolution at long last have the scales fall from their eyes, see the PA for what it is, and rally to support the Jewish state.

Let us hope.