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False Justice
(Jerusalem Post) Daniel Doron - The Big Lie is that Israel is guilty of stealing or occupying Palestinian territories. Yet until the end of World War I, the territories that were to become the Palestine British Mandate were a deserted province of the Turkish Empire. As Bernard Lewis noted, "From the end of the Jewish state in antiquity to the beginning of British rule, the area now designated by the name of Palestine was not a country." In the post-WW I agreements that disposed of former Turkish lands, 99% of the Middle East's Turkish territories were assigned to the Arabs, on condition that 1% will be designated a Jewish national home. Britain received a League of Nations mandate over Palestine (that included then Jordan) only because it undertook to establish a Jewish national home there. In 1947 Jordan occupied and arbitrarily annexed the West Bank. When in 1967 Israel ejected Jordan, the West Bank territories reverted, legally, to the status of disputed land, with the Jewish people having the prime legal claim to it. The disputed territories were never Palestinian Arab. The West Bank remains in legal dispute pending a settlement. Israeli settlements - occupying a mere 3 to 4% of government-owned land - cannot therefore be considered illegal. The writer is president of the Israel Center for Social and Economic Progress.