Acceso usuarios
Joseph H. H. Weiler
Given the promised September UN move by the Palestinian Authority it is of interest to recall some of the circumstances surrounding the birth of Israel. There are some interesting historical parallels and some differences. In public opinion and Hollywood movies, Israel was born with a UN midwife: UNGA Resolution 181, the famous Partition Resolution of 29 November 1947 ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpNpueivtWQ ). The Resolution called for, inter alia, the creation of two states, the internationalization of Jerusalem and � wait for it � an economic Union within the whole territory! �De Facto Solidarity� was not, apparently, invented with the Schuman Declaration.
Arab states spoke forcefully against the Resolution and, obviously, voted against it en bloc. Not only did they not recognize Israel in the sense of declining diplomatic relations � they argued the very illegitimacy of Israel as a state. In furtherance of this position, in the lawfare (only the term is new, not the praxis) that immediately erupted, Arab scholars spent much ink on dismissing any legal significance to that Resolution � essentially arguing the general non-binding nature of General Assembly resolutions. (You don�t see that argument about UNGA Resolution 181 being made too often today by the Arab protagonists in the ongoing lawfare.) Many Israeli scholars readily conceded the point. Indeed, they argued, it was not within the power of the General Assembly as such legally to sanction the creation of a new state, though, of course, the Resolution was politically very important. Israel came into being, it was argued, when it declared independence on 15 May 1948 upon termination of the British Mandate over Palestine. The birth of the new state under international law was the result, it was claimed, of the widespread and representative recognition of it by the states of the world community.
