Monday 30 September 2013

90 years ago: British Mandate for Palestine comes into effect

And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth. Isaiah 11:12

For, lo, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will bring again the captivity of my people Israel and Judah, saith the Lord: and I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it...
... Therefore fear thou not, O my servant Jacob, saith the Lord; neither be dismayed, O Israel: for, lo, I will save thee from afar, and thy seed from the land of their captivity; and Jacob shall return, and shall be in rest, and be quiet, and none shall make him afraid.
For I am with thee, saith the Lord, to save thee: though I make a full end of all nations whither I have scattered thee, yet I will not make a full end of thee: but I will correct thee in measure, and will not leave thee altogether unpunished...
Thus saith the Lord; Behold, I will bring again the captivity of Jacob's tents, and have mercy on his dwellingplaces; and the city shall be builded upon her own heap, and the palace shall remain after the manner thereof.
Jeremiah 30:3, 10-11, 18

If those ordinances depart from before me, saith the Lord, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me for ever. Jeremiah 31:36

On September 29, 1923, the British Mandate for Palestine took effect, creating Mandatory Palestine. The Mandate, i.e., the legal instrument authorizing British control of the area, was a result of the ratification of the Treaty of Lausanne on July 24, 1923 which officialy ended the state of war that had existed between Turkey and the British Empire, France, Italy, Japan, Greece, Romania, and the Serb-Croat Slovene State since the beginning of World War I. The Mandate was based on the principles adopted in the San Remo Resolution of April 25, 1920, embodied in Articles 94 and 95 of the Treaty of Sevres (signed August 10, 1920) and contained in Article 22 of the draft Covenant of the League of Nations, which stated, in part:

To those colonies and territories which as a consequence of the late war have ceased to be under the sovereignty of the States which formerly governed them and which are inhabited by peoples not yet able to stand by themselves under the strenuous conditions of the modern world, there should be applied the principle that the well-being and development of such peoples form a sacred trust of civilisation and that securities for the performance of this trust should be embodied in this Covenant.

The best method of giving practical effect to this principle is that the tutelage of such peoples should be entrusted to advanced nations who by reason of their resources, their experience or their geographical position can best undertake this responsibility, and who are willing to accept it, and that this tutelage should be exercised by them as Mandatories on behalf of the League.

The character of the mandate must differ according to the stage of the development of the people, the geographical situation of the territory, its economic conditions and other similar circumstances.

Certain communities formerly belonging to the Turkish Empire have reached a stage of development where their existence as independent nations can be provisionally recognized subject to the rendering of administrative advice and assistance by a Mandatory until such time as they are able to stand alone. The wishes of these communities must be a principal consideration in the selection of the Mandatory...

...In every case of mandate, the Mandatory shall render to the Council an annual report in reference to the territory committed to its charge.

The degree of authority, control, or administration to be exercised by the Mandatory shall, if not previously agreed upon by the Members of the League, be explicitly defined in each case by the Council.

A permanent Commission shall be constituted to receive and examine the annual reports of the Mandatories and to advise the Council on all matters relating to the observance of the mandates.
The Council of the League of Nations had formally confirmed the draft of the Mandate on July 24, 1922, and had amended it on September 16, 1922 with the Transjordan memorandum. From the time of the Transjordan memorandum, Great Britain administered the area west of the Jordan River as Palestine, and east of the Jordan River as Transjordan. While they technically remained one mandate, they were regarded as separate mandates in most official documents, and Transjordan was granted internal self-government in May 1923. The Kingdom of Transjordan was proclaimed in 1946; it became the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in 1949.

The Mandate, which formalized British control of southern Ottoman Syria, ended with the creation of the state of Israel at midnight on May 14, 1948.

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