37 Fall 2025 3. Terms of the Mandate - reconstituting a Jewish national home The terms of the Mandate for Palestine were subsequently agreed upon in detail by the Allied Powers and endorsed by the League Council on 12 August 1922 (the “Mandate for Palestine”). As with the San Remo Conference, the terms reflected the obligation to advance a national home for the Jewish people, stating that the Mandatory “should be responsible for putting into effect the declaration originally made on November 2nd, 1917, by the Government of His Britannic Majesty… in favor of the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.” To achieve this, the Mandatory “shall be responsible for placing the country under such political, administrative and economic conditions as will secure the establishment of the Jewish national home, as laid down in the preamble… [i.e. the Balfour Declaration].” In doing so, and as noted in the Preamble itself, the Mandate recognizes the “historical connection of the Jewish people with Palestine and to the grounds for reconstituting their national home in that country [emphasis added].”155 The word ‘reconstituting’ was purposefully used in acknowledgement of the historical rights of the Jewish people to revive their national home in this land. The Mandate for Palestine, as with the San Remo Conference, Covenant of the League of Nations and the Balfour Declaration itself, did not provide that political rights vested in any other group, requiring only that implementation of the obligations therein shall be without prejudice to “the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine” [emphasis added].156 4. The territorial scope of the Mandate included the present-day West Bank The Mandate for Palestine included areas west and east of the Jordan river. The terms of the Mandate provided that the Mandatory, with the consent of the League of Nations, may exclude the application of certain provisions of the Mandate to the area lying east of the Jordan river.157 In September 1922 the Council of the League of Nations approved the separation of the area known as Transjordan from the territory of the Mandate.158 In so doing, the League cemented the understanding that the entire area west of the Jordan river was assigned for the establishment of the Jewish national home as required under the Mandate. 155. Mandate for Palestine, League of Nations Doc. C. 529. M. 314. 1922. VI (1922). 156. Id. 157. Id. Art. 25; U.N. Secretary-General, Question of Palestine Text of Mandate, Memorandum by the British Gov’t., U.N. Doc. A/292 (Sep 16, 1922); ROBBIE SABEL, INTERNATIONAL LAW AND THE ARAB-ISRAELI CONFLICT 72 (Cambridge Univ. Press 2022). 158. Note Presented by the Secretary General Relating to [The Mandate for Palestine] Application to the Territory Known as Trans-Jordan Under the Provisions of Article 25, League of Nations (1922), available at https://dp.la/item/86ad c8e9d50b0ccaaf32f2bc888f7855; The International Criminal Court’s Lack of Jurisdiction over the so called “Situation in Palestine”, State of Israel Office of the Attorney General ¶ 27 (Dec. 18, 2019), https://www.gov.il/BlobFolder/ reports/20-12-2019/en/Memorandum-Attorney-General.pdf.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjgzNzA=