ARUTZ SHEVA
by Salomon Benzimra, P. Eng.
April 26, 2015

Ninety five years ago, prime ministers, ambassadors and other dignitaries from Europeand America gathered in the Italian Riviera.  Journalists from around the world reported on the upcoming San Remo Peace Conference and the great expectations the international community placed on this event, just a year after the Paris Peace Conference had settled the political map of Europe at the end of World War One…The importance of the San Remo Conference with regard to Palestine cannot be overstated:

• For the first time in history, Palestine became a legal and political entity;
• The Jewish people were recognized as the national beneficiary of the trust granted to Britain in Palestine for the duration of the Mandate — a “sacred trust of civilization” as per the League Covenant;
• The Balfour Declaration of 1917 — which “viewed with favour” the establishment of a Jewish National Home in Palestine — was now to be “put into effect” and thus became a binding act of international law;
• The de jure sovereignty of Palestine was vested in the Jewish people, though it was kept in abeyance until the Mandate expired in 1948;
• The terms of the San Remo Resolution were included in the Treaty of Sèvres and remained unchanged in the finally ratified Treaty of Lausanne of 1923.
• The Arabs received equivalent national rights in all the remaining parts of the Middle East — over 96% of the total area formerly governed by the Ottoman Turks. READ MORE