United Nations self-destructs by violating Article 80 UN Charter
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres continues to lose the plot on resolving the Jewish-Arab conflict – as he fails to correct a statement made by UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Process – Tor Wennesland – that flagrantly violates Article 80 of the UN Charter.
Guterres seems unable to comprehend that his duty and obligation is to uphold the UN Charter – not tolerate any attempt by anyone – especially his handpicked appointee – to violate it.
In April 1945 – Article 80 was inserted in the United Nations Charter after the Jewish Agency for Palestine submitted a Memorandum to the United Nations Conference on International Organization held in San Francisco requesting:
“In view of the unique character of the Palestine Mandate and the special rights of the Jewish people thereunder, no action should be taken at the San Francisco Conference which would be inconsistent with or prejudicial to the special rights of the Jewish people under the Balfour Declaration and the Palestine Mandate, and all such rights shall be expressly reserved and safeguarded”
Article 80 reserved and safeguarded those special rights of the Jewish people under the Balfour Declaration and articles 6 and 25 of the Palestine Mandate to reconstitute the Jewish National Home in any part of the 22% of the Mandate territory located west of the Jordan River – whilst denying any such rights in the 78% of the Mandate territory located east of the Jordan River.
The Jews accepted those territorial boundaries but the Arabs never have:
- Either in 1922 when first promulgated in the Mandate document unanimously approved by all 51 member states of the League of Nations
- Or after 1945 when those rights were reserved and safeguarded by Article 80.
Wennesland’s latest statement shows how far the United Nations has moved towards its own self-destruction and loss of any influence to end a conflict that should have been resolved decades ago:-
Note:
- Why does Wennesland use the term “West Bank”? For 3500 years prior to 1950 it had been called “Judea and Samaria” – the ancient biblical and historic heartland of the Jewish people. That term was used in 1947 in UN Resolution 181 (II) and is still used by Israel today. Why not designate it “Judea and Samaria (West Bank)”?
- Wennesland’s claimed “right of Palestinians to self-determination and independent statehood” was achieved in 1946 when Great Britain granted the Palestinian Arabs independence in the territory of the Palestine Mandate located east of the Jordan River. It was renamed “The Hashemite Kingdom of Transjordan” – further extending its control over the Mandate territory west of the Jordan River when conquering Judea and Samariaand East Jerusalem in May 1948 – expelling all the Jews legally living there from their homes until Israel won the 1967 Six Day War.
- Following the December 1948 Jericho Conference – Judea and Samaria, east Jerusalem and the Hashemite Kingdom of Transjordan were unified into one new territorial entity and renamed “The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan” in 1950.
- The settlements and those 3400 housing units are legal under Article 80
Wennesland’s biased, ignorant and semantic-sleight of hand statement is appalling.
He fails to disclose he is also Guterres’s Personal Representative to the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority.
Wennesland and Guterres are hopelessly conflicted.
A solution to divide Judea and Samaria between Israel and Jordan without creating a new separate state between them – The Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine solution (HKOPS) – has been totally ignored by Guterres, Wennesland, the General Assembly and the Security Council since its publication in 2022.
Time they all started talking about implementing HKOPS – as the Israel-Gaza war threatens to see the region implode into one huge killing field.
Please join my Facebook Page: “Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine supporters”
Author’s note: The cartoon — commissioned exclusively for this article — is by Yaakov Kirschen aka “Dry Bones”- one of Israel’s foremost political and social commentators — whose cartoons have graced the columns of Israeli and international media publications for decades.
