“The Jewish people are in Jerusalem, not as settlers or invaders, but as of right. These rights are clearly spelt out in international law and should be respected by the international community,” concludes a report from Dr. Jacques Gauthier, an international human rights lawyer from Toronto.
Gauthier has spent 25 years conducting research into the conflicting claims to Jerusalem under international law. Gauthier presented his findings on Jerusalem Day last week, speaking in front of the European Parliament in Brussels.
“For anyone who is interested in justice, these are issues which we have to study carefully,” he said. “The rights vested in the Jewish people stand on very solid legal ground and are valid to this day.”
Gauthier made a clear distinction between Jerusalem and the so-called disputed territories. As he sees it, Jerusalem is not a settlement but the historical capital of Israel. If Jerusalem were to be divided along the armistice demarcation lines of 1967 as President Obama suggested, he said, it would place the Old City under Palestinian rule.
“This would contradict the legal commitments made to the Jewish people in the San Remo Resolution of 1920, the Mandate for Palestine in 1922, as well as Article 80 in the United Nations Charter,” Gauthier said.
Based on these legal commitments, Gauthier also defended the right for Jewish settlements to exist in any area covered by the original Mandate for Palestine, including a possible future Palestinian state. The current leader of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, in contrast, has stated that “no Jews would be permitted to live in a Palestinian state.”
What does all this mean? According to ECI Director Tomas Sandell, it means praying and working for a just and lasting peace. Dividing Jerusalem will not lead to peace but will only further fuel the conflict,” Sandell said. “A lasting peace needs to be based on historical facts and international law and not on unilateral declarations or international pressure.”
