Over the past 90 years Western & Arab leaders, as well as many Jewish leaders, have had convenient amnesia about the entitlements of Jews and Arabs in the Middle East
To put the record straight:
The legal title of The Jewish People to The Land of Israel(including Yehudah & Shomron) was first acknowledged under modern international law in April 1920 in San Remo, Italy, when The Supreme Council of the Principal Allied Powers (Great Britain, France, Italy & Japan)approved The Balfour Declaration of November 1917
As a direct result of this and of the Mandate for Palestine(which was confirmed by The Council of The League of Nations in July 1922)the legal title of the Jewish people to The Land of Israel(including Yehudah & Shomron)was exclusively vested in The Jewish People
This constituted official recognition under international law of legal rights to The Land of Israel(including Yehudah & Shomron)which has never been altered by any other binding act or instrument of international law that has met the test of legality.
The UN Partition Resolution of November 1947 failed to be accepted by the concerned Arab Parties, including the local Arab inhabitants and , in any case, was only a recommendation.
There is a more fundamental reason, relating to the Doctrine of Estoppel(you can’t go back on a “done deal”), why Jewish legal rights and title over The Land of Israel continued after the end of the Mandate. This Doctrine of Estoppel is applicable both in international law as well as the internal law of the USA
It affects 3 distinct groups:
1) All members of The League of Nations, over 50 in number are barred by virtue of this Doctrine from denying what they had previously assented to; that is that the Land of Israel (including Yehudah & Shomron) was exclusively reserved for The Jewish people for the purpose of setting up its national home or state
2) The Doctrine of Estoppel applies with even greater force to the USA which had specifically accepted all the terms of The Mandate for Palestine in a Treaty which it signed with Great Britain in December 1924 which was subsequently approved by the US Senate in February 1925 & ratified by President Coolridge in March 1925; making the Mandate for Palestine and the Balfour declaration the domestic law of the USA
This is a fact of great importance, which has been conveniently forgotten, particularly by the outgoing Obama Administration which wrongly calls legally established Israeli settlements in Yehudah & Shomron “obstacles to peace” & whose expansion it considers “inflammatory & provocative”
By previous approval of The Treaty The US is legally barred from denouncing or taking any action against Israeli settlement activity in Yehudah & Shomron
3)Finally, The Doctrine of Estoppel applies to Arab States such as Iraq(previously Mesopotamia), Syria & Jordan, whose own creation under international law derived from the very same political & legal procedures in the early 1920swhich led to the establishment of The State of Israel.
In exchange for the Arabs getting their national rights the Jews got theirs.
The Arabs cannot gleefully accept national rights accorded to them under those proceedings while at the same time denying them to the Jewish People.
After those proceedings large numbers of Arabs from different parts of the Middle East flooded into the embryonic Jewish State for jobs, even though the British in 1921 had set up a home& opportunity for them East of the river Jordan.
The Oslo Accords provided for self- government for The Palestinians in part of Yehudah & Shomron in return for recognition of Israel’s right to exist and renunciation of terror.
The Palestinians have clearly failed to keep to their part of the bargain as a result of which they have negated the accords leaving the way clear for Israel to annex that part of Yehudah & Shomron under Israeli control.
