JERUSALEM POST
Rejecting the false notion that Israel is occupier
by Alan Clemmons
December 26, 2016

…“Occupier” is nothing more than a polite way of calling Israel a thief, suggesting that Jewish invaders colonized territory belonging to the Arabs, and which therefore must be restored to its rightful, victimized owners. The term is intentionally misused against Israel in order to shape negative misperceptions of her history and legitimacy, while perpetuating a sense of Palestinian-Arab victimhood. To suggest that the Jews are occupiers in a region that has been known as Judea for over 3000-plus years is no less ridiculous than to suggest that Arabs are occupiers in Arabia. “Occupier” is a legal term whose definition does not apply to Israel under the law. Israel’s legal title and rights to all of its present territory stem directly from an act of international law made in the post-WWI San Remo Agreement, which was then further recognized and incorporated in subsequent binding acts, from the Covenant of the League of Nations all the way through Article 80 of the United Nations’ charter. None of the national and political rights thereby recognized as inherit in the Jewish People have ever been revoked, nullified or superseded by a subsequent act of international law. READ MORE

Alan Clemmons is a Republican member of the South Carolina House of Representatives. He was the primary author of the 2016 GOP Platform section regarding Israel and is credited with getting the word “indivisible” inserted next to “Jerusalem”. In 2015, he was the originating sponsor of the Country’s first state anti-BDS legislation.