Who Owns the West Bank? - Part 1

When Israel and the West Bank are discussed in the media, we generally hear a narrative suggesting the West Bank belongs to the Arabs in Palestine; with an inference that Palestine is a legally recognized state within the Middle East. This is far from the truth. These vast un-surveyed territories were known as Palestine and comprised the countries we now know as Jordan and Israel. The original purpose of the 1922 Mandate for Palestine was the creation of these two separate states, one for the Arabs, and one for the Jews. The 1948 resolution by the United Nations ratified this mandate, but separated vast areas within Israel itself, as Arab Territories also. These changes to the original mandate were ideologically flawed and created if not fueled the tension we face today. Under the original mandate, Israel extended from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean and included the regions of Judea and Samaria, known as the West Bank, and Gaza. However, public perception has been manipulated over many years by those who seek to malign and destroy Israel, by creating another Arab state, other than Jordan, without historical or legal claim in the first place. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to state Israel’s right, to “who owns the West Bank and Gaza”.

Many Arabs have been granted ownership of land, through cultivation rights, established by Israel, but commentaries expand on this accommodation by suggesting this implies ownership of the entire West Bank. Many people have come to accept this false narrative without really considering the subversive ideology that drives rhetoric embedded in anti-Semitism. Sadly I hear many liberal Christians arguing the same lie, and conveying the same level of historical ignorance.

In a recent media release, Gerry Brownlee, New Zealand’s newly appointed representative to the UN, apparently misunderstood New Zealand’s political position on Israel and failed to use the right language when questioned about the recent United Nations resolution on Israel. In this release, we find both the media and Politicians alike, continuing with the false narrative about ownership of the West Bank. Specifically, the use of phrases such as, “Palestinian land”, “Palestinian territory”, “Israel having no legal right”, and, “Israel’s violation of international law”, all of which convey a sense of pre-existing ownership by Arabs. The use of these phrases undermines and misrepresents that Israel is the legally recognized owner of the West Bank; the West Bank is part of Israel! By doing this, our political representatives, and the general media, contribute to the overwhelming ignorance of the population. The Dominion article further stated, “Foreign Minister Gerry Brownlee was still "finding the right language", when it came to Israel, according to Prime Minister Bill English. But "yes", he's now found it.” How convenient for the Prime Minister to find the right language for Gerry Brownlee.

The United Nations resolution, enabled and abetted by New Zealand, demanded that Israel "immediately and completely cease all settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem", and said the settlements had "no legal validity and constitutes a flagrant violation under international law". This is like the United States demanding that the New Zealand government cease all development of land in the South Island; because someone claims the South Island is owned by occupying Chinese, from Southland.

The legal status of the 1948 UN resolution, is contested by many commentators, including many legal opinions from both sides of the argument. Quite naturally our interpretation of the evidence will determine our point of view. However, the legality of the UN resolution is one of many areas in question, which I'll address in my next letter.

Wikipedia correctly explains the annexation of the West Bank in 1948 but doesn’t address the legal situation before 1948. Because the writer believes the UN resolution of 1948 was illegal, the subsequent annexation was an aggressive military invasion that had no legal justification. The annexation of the West Bank refers to the occupation and consequent annexation of the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) by Jordan, in the aftermath of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. During this war, Jordan's Arab Legion conquered the Old City of Jerusalem taking control of territory on the western side of the Jordan River, including, Jericho, Bethlehem, Hebron and Nablus. By the end of hostilities, Jordan was in complete control of the West Bank and began by renaming Transjordan to Jordan, and formally annexing the West Bank on 24 April 1950. Jordan then transferred citizenship to the residents of the West Bank; the annexation more than doubled the population of Jordan.

What are the facts?

“Israel has an irrefutable legal claim to these territories backed by the 93-year-old Mandate for Palestine.”

After World War I, only the Allied Powers had the right, and power, to resolve the issue of land ownership. They divided the entire area of Palestine in two, Israel (west of the Jordan River), and Jordan (east of the Jordan River), as homelands for the Jews and the Arabs respectively. This resolution, made at the San Remo Conference, was affected through the Mandate for Palestine, and adopted by the League of Nations in 1922. This division meant that about 70% of the originally mandated Jewish homeland was designated as the Palestinian Arab homeland. This area was granted independence in 1946 and is known today as Jordan. At this point, I want to emphasize the fact that Palestinian Arabs are not without a homeland already. Jordan was, and is the created homeland for Palestinian Arabs. The Arab/Israeli issue stems from the fact that Arabs want the entire area of Israel as well, and the West Bank has become the emotional leverage for world opinion.

The West Bank was taken from Israel by Egypt, Iraq, Jordan and Syria following Israel’s War of Independence in 1948. When Israel was attacked, Jordan illegally seized the “West Bank”, and east Jerusalem, and expelled all Jews from their homeland. The territories of Judea and Samaria have never been part of any nation except the Jewish state. In 1967, Israel was again attacked by Arab armies, but Israel prevailed and recovered the occupied “West Bank” from Jordan. It should be noted that during Jordan’s occupation of the “West Bank,” no Arab Palestinian movement emerged in favour of independence. Indeed, it wasn’t until Israel reclaimed the land, and Jews returned to their ancestral home, that claims of Jewish “occupation” were raised.

Today, most land in present-day Judea and Samaria is not privately owned, it’s un-surveyed land, without proven individual ownership. Israel claims about 30% of the public land in the territory. However, the Supreme Court of Israel has ruled that un-surveyed land in Judea and Samaria can be acquired by Arabs who cultivate it consistently. Arabs, through deed and cultivation rights, own about 95% of private land in the territory. Jews, however, are not granted similar rights, so Jewish farming on un-surveyed land does not entitle Jews to private ownership. Nonetheless, Jews own about 5% of all private land in Judea and Samaria.

However, Israel recognized that its claims were disputed by its Arab neighbours and demonstrated a willingness to share the land. Starting in 1967, following the Six-Day War, Israel has offered to give up almost all the land it controls in the “West Bank”, plus a Palestinian capital in the eastern part of Jerusalem, in exchange for peace. Unfortunately, despite numerous such land-for-peace overtures by Israel, the Arabs have consistently rejected them. To understand the reasons why Arabs have never accepted peace in the area, one has to understand the global agenda of Islam, concerning Israel. Not only do the Arabs reject any Jewish claims to land in Judea and Samaria, they insist the territory be made Judenrein, or free of Jews. Worse still, most Arabs, including the terror group Hamas, maintain that the entire land of Palestine, from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, including all of Israel and the “West Bank”, belongs only to Arabs. Today, official Palestinian maps do not depict the state of Israel.

I don’t expect this or any other article about Israel’s ownership of the West Bank is going to change the course of world opinion, anti-Semitism, or future events, I do hope that Christians in particular, might examine the facts a little closer, and not perpetuate the false narrative currently employed by the media.