Page 24 - SAN REMO 100 - BOOKLET-08-04-20-Inner Pages-MB.indd

State of Israel

How did the Jewish State Develop from the San Remo Resolution?

Dr Cynthia Day Wallace

t is widely believed that the State It was at this place and time that “the legal foundations
Iof Israel was born as a result of the historical claim to a “Jewish
United Nations Resolution 181 national home”, as set out in of Israel date back to
of 1947 (the UN Partition Plan). the 1917 Declaration of Lord San Remo”
The truth is that the legal rights Balfour, became essentially legal
of the Jewish people and Israel in character. The transformation
as a nation find their foundations of a British political document into (notably Zionist and Arab) and to
solidly embedded in international an international legal instrument deliberate and make decisions on
law well before the very existence was given impetus through its the legal recognition of each claim.
of the United Nations. These incorporation into the Zionist
rights date back to international submission to the Paris Peace talks. This conference resulted in
legal instruments agreed by the the codification of the Balfour
Principal Allied Powers of World San Remo Conference Declaration into binding
War I, meeting at Villa Devachan in The issues regarding the break-up international legal instruments in
San Remo, Italy, from 18 to 26 April of the Ottoman Empire being too the form of the 1920 San Remo
1920, as a follow-up to the 1919 complex to resolve at the Peace Resolution and the resulting 1922
Paris Peace Conference. Conference itself, an extension of Mandate for Palestine. The Mandate
the peace talks was arranged at language actually went beyond
San Remo for the Supreme Council the Balfour Declaration by adding
of the Principal Allied Powers. One the concept of “reconstituting”
of their primary aims, endued the Jewish national home. The
with the power of disposition over Mandate System had been set up
the territories that made up the under the newly formed League
defeated Turkish Ottoman Empire, of Nations which had arisen out
was to consider the submissions of of the Paris peace process. Article
the various claimants made at Paris 22 of the League’s Covenant dealt

22 SAN REMO 100