[News] Annexation of Palestine began in San Remo

[Anti-Imperialist News]

https://english.palinfo.com/news/2020/5/5/Annexation-of-Palestine-began-in-San-Remo
Annexation
of Palestine began in San Remo
By Ramzy Baroud - May 5, 2020
------------------------------

One hundred years ago, representatives from a few powerful countries
convened at San Remo, a sleepy town on the Italian Riviera. Together, they
sealed the fate of the massive territories confiscated from the Ottoman
Empire following its defeat in World War I.

It was on April 25, 1920, that the San Remo Conference Resolution was
passed by the post-World War I Allied Supreme Council. Western Mandates
were established over Palestine, Syria and ‘Mesopotamia’ – Iraq. The latter
two were theoretically designated for provisional independence, while
Palestine was granted to the Zionist movement to establish a Jewish
homeland there.

“The Mandatory will be responsible for putting into effect the (Balfour)
declaration originally made on November 8, 1917, by the British Government,
and adopted by the other Allied Powers, in favor of the establishment in
Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people,” the Resolution read.

The Resolution gave greater international recognition to Britain’s
unilateral decision, three years earlier, to grant Palestine to the Zionist
Federation for the purpose of establishing a Jewish homeland, in exchange
for Zionist support of Britain during the Great War.

And, like Britain’s Balfour Declaration, a cursory mention was made of the
unfortunate inhabitants of Palestine, whose historic homeland was being
unfairly confiscated and handed over to colonial settlers.

The establishment of that Jewish State, according to San Remo, hinged on
some vague ‘understanding’ that “nothing shall be done which may prejudice
the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in
Palestine.”

The above addition merely served as a poor attempt at appearing politically
balanced, while in reality no enforcement mechanism was ever put in place
to ensure that the ‘understanding’ was ever respected or implemented.

In fact, one could argue that the West’s long engagement in the question of
Israel and Palestine has followed the same San Remo prototype: where the
Zionist movement (and eventually Israel) is granted its political
objectives based on unenforceable conditions that are never respected or
implemented.

Notice how the vast majority of United Nations Resolution pertaining to
Palestinian rights are historically passed by the General Assembly, not by
the Security Council, where the US is one of five veto-wielding powers,
always ready to strike down any attempt at enforcing international law.

It is this historical dichotomy that led to the current political deadlock.

Palestinian leaderships, one after the other, have miserably failed at
changing the stifling paradigm. Decades before the establishment of the
Palestinian Authority, countless delegations, comprised those claiming to
represent the Palestinian people, traveled to Europe, appealing to one
government or another, pleading the Palestinian case and demanding fairness.

What has changed since then?

On February 20, the Donald Trump administration issued its own version of
the Balfour Declaration, termed the ‘Deal of the Century’.

The American decision which, again, flouted international law, paves the
way for further Israeli colonial annexations of occupied Palestine. It
brazenly threatens Palestinians that, if they do not cooperate, they will
be punished severely. In fact, they already have been, when Washington cut
all funding to the Palestinian Authority and to international institutions
that provide critical aid to the Palestinians.

Like in the San Remo Conference, the Balfour Declaration, and numerous
other documents, Israel was asked, ever so politely but without any plans
to enforce such demands, to grant Palestinians some symbolic gestures of
freedom and independence.

Some may argue, and rightly so, that the ‘Deal of the Century’ and the San
Remo Conference Resolution are not identical in the sense that Trump’s
decision was a unilateral one, while San Remo was the outcome of political
consensus among various countries – Britain, France, Italy, and others.

True, but two important points must be taken into account: firstly, the
Balfour Declaration was also a unilateral decision. It took Britain’s
allies three years to embrace and validate the illegal decision made by
London to grant Palestine to the Zionists. The question now is, how long
will it take for Europe to claim the ‘Deal of the Century’ as its own?

Secondly, the spirit of all of these declarations, promises, resolutions,
and ‘deals’ is the same, where superpowers decide by virtue of their own
massive influence to rearrange the historical rights of nations. In some
way, the colonialism of old has never truly died.

The Palestinian Authority, like previous Palestinian leaderships, is
presented with the proverbial carrot and stick. Last March, US President
Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, told Palestinians that if they
did not return to the (non-existent) negotiations with Israel, the US would
support Israel’s annexation of the West Bank.

For nearly three decades now and, certainly, since the signing of the Oslo
Accords in September 1993, the PA has chosen the carrot. Now that the US
has decided to change the rules of the game altogether, Mahmoud Abbas’
Authority is facing its most serious existential threat yet: bowing down to
Kushner or insisting on returning to a dead political paradigm that was
constructed, then abandoned, by Washington.

The crisis within the Palestinian leadership is met with utter clarity on
the part of Israel. The new Israeli coalition government, consisting of
previous rivals Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu and Benny Gantz,
have tentatively agreed that annexing large parts of the West Bank and the
Jordan Valley is just a matter of time. They are merely waiting for the
American nod.

They are unlikely to wait for long, as Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo,
said on April 22 that annexing Palestinian territories is “an Israeli
decision.”

Frankly, it matters little. The 21st century Balfour Declaration has
already been made; it is only a matter of making it the new uncontested
reality.

Perhaps, it is time for the Palestinian leadership to understand that
groveling at the feet of those who have inherited the San Remo Resolution,
constructing and sustaining colonial Israel, is never and has never been
the answer.

Perhaps, it is time for some serious rethink.

*- Ramzy Baroud is a journalist, author and editor of Palestine Chronicle.
He has authored a number of books on the Palestinian struggle including
‘The Last Earth: A Palestinian Story’. Baroud has a Ph.D. in Palestine
Studies from the University of Exeter and is a Non-Resident Scholar at
Orfalea Center for Global and International Studies, University of
California Santa Barbara.*
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