The Independent Jewish Voices (Canada) Is At It, Yet Again

In their discussion of the survey data, which seems to show that a majority of people responded with answers 3 and 4, the authors manipulated the results and made the following assertions:

1. Unilateral annexation is blatantly illegal according to international law.
2. The U.N. Charter forbids territorial conquest, and dozens of UN resolutions have repeatedly confirmed the international community’s opposition to Israel’s acquisition of territory by force.
3. Moreover, the land slated to be annexed by Israel is considered to be reserved for a future Palestinian state, undermining the possibility of a negotiated settlement between Israel and the Palestinians. Annexation would therefore “be a severe body blow to the rules-based international order”, says UN Special Rapporteur Michael Lynk, and “would crystalize a 21st century apartheid, leaving in its wake the demise of the Palestinians right to self-determination. Legally, morally, politically, this is entirely unacceptable.”

My Analysis: In the process, the authors conveniently forgot to consider the following historical facts on the ground and in international law regarding their six topics:

1. The P.A. does not have legal title under international law to the territory mis-named as the West Bank, sometime around or after the war of 1973 in an attempt to disassociate Israel from her legal rights to the territory.
2. It is a historical fact, self- evident during the history of the British Mandate between 1920 and 1948 and conceded by some in the Arab world. that there has never been such a thing as an Arab “Palestinian people” and that the designation was invented and came into use sometime after the war of 1967 to promote the notion of a state for the Palestinians.
3. The intention of Israel is not to annex the territory in question on a whim or out of the blue, but to extend Israel’s sovereignty over part of the territory reserved under international law for the establishment of a Jewish homeland which in 1948 became the State of Israel.
4. Israel’s entitlement to the territory in question is protected under the Charter of the U.N.
5. Israel did not acquire the territory by force: she recovered it in a defensive war as a result of the 1967 Six-Day War commenced by some Arab states including Jordan.
6. Jordan has abandoned any and all claims of ownership to the entirety of the territory in question which it occupied illegally from the 1949 Armistice to June of 1967.

The position of Canada stated in the question is really immaterial because the said policy is not defeated by Israel’s intention.

At all events, Canada has always taken the position that the delineation of the final borders is a matter to be negotiated between Israel and the P.A, although under the government of Justin Trudeau the position seems to be the position that pending negotiations Israel should not expand her borders.