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A Ha'aretz Columnist Mangles History, Facts, and International Law

(Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs) Amb. Alan Baker - On August 9, 2019, Ha'aretz featured an op-ed by Shaul Arieli entitled, "The Ignorance of Trump Envoy Greenblatt Is Just the Tip of the Iceberg." He criticizes Greenblatt's assertions, in a speech to the UN Security Council on July 23, that the accepted bases of the world order - international consensus, international law, and UN Security Council resolutions - had proven to be unsuccessful in seeking an end to the Israel-Arab conflict. Arieli's reverence for international consensus and UN resolutions as a core base of the international order is utterly mistaken. While international consensus may reflect a prevailing political viewpoint of some states in the international community and may appear in the form of non-binding UN resolutions, it cannot serve to impose itself on sovereign states including Israel that have the prerogative to act in their own sovereign interests. UN resolutions are not international law and those adopted in the context of the Israel-Arab dispute are not obligatory. Non-binding General Assembly Resolution 194 of 1948 did not grant any legal or other right of return for displaced Arab refugees. It stated, "Refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbors should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date." The resolution conditioned any consideration of the return of Arab refugees on their willingness to "live at peace with their neighbors." Arieli accuses Greenblatt of trying to blur the legal terminology that applies to occupied territories by using the term "disputed territory." The truth is that the term "occupied territory" has become a distinctly politicized expression used only in the context of Israel, despite many other situations in the world in which territories are being occupied. The accurate description of the territories is indeed "disputed," which is a factual description of the situation, devoid of political cliches. The writer, former legal adviser and deputy director-general of Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, participated in the negotiation and drafting of the Oslo Accords with the Palestinians.
2019-08-16 00:00:00
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