In September, the Palestinian Authority (PA)—comprising al-Fatah (political arm of the PLO, created by the arch-terrorist Yasser Arafat) and Hamas (recognized as terrorists by most nations, including Canada)—intends to present the United Nations General Assembly with a unilateral declaration of a Palestinian State. The PA is going to the General Assembly because, in the Security Council, the U.S. and Britain have a veto, and might use it. But a body of international jurists and lawyers has sent a letter to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon, warning him that the PA’s action would be illegal. Here are their arguments:

1. The legal foundation for the establishment of the State of Israel was a resolution unanimously adopted by the League of Nations in 1922, to establish a national home for the Jewish People in their historical homeland (then called “Palestine”), including Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem.

2. The UN Charter affirms the continued validity of already-existing international instruments (including those adopted by the League of Nations). Accordingly, the 650,000 Jews presently resident in Judea, Samaria, and Jerusalem are there legitimately.

3. The so-called “1967 borders” never existed. The 1949 Armistice between Israel and its neighbors established Demarcation Lines, clearly stating that they “are without prejudice to future territorial settlements or boundary lines.”

4. UN Security Council Resolutions 242 (1967) and 338 (1973) called for a just and lasting peace, and specifically stressed the need to negotiate “secure and recognized boundaries”—not to declare them unilaterally.

5. The Palestinian proposal, in addition to violating UN Resolutions 242 and 338, would breach the 1995 Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, to negotiate borders.

6. The Palestinians signed the “Oslo Accords” knowing that Israeli settlements already existed in those areas. Furthermore, the Oslo Accords impose no limitation on Israeli settlements in those areas.

7. The Interim Agreement signed by Israel and the PLO was witnessed by the UN, the EU, the Russian Federation, the U.S., Egypt, and Norway. It is thus inconceivable that those witnesses would now violate this agreement, undermining major resolutions of the Security Council.

8. A unilaterally-declared Palestinian state would be the ultimate in hypocrisy and disregard for the rights of Israel and the Jewish People.

Prime Minister Harper deserves credit for standing up for Israel—almost alone, since President Obama adopted Palestinian talking points—but CHP Canada remains the only party in Canada whose policies explicitly defend Israel’s right to exist in safety behind secure borders. When Israel declared independence in 1948, within the area outlined by the UN, their Muslim neighbours declared war, and in that war Jordan illegally annexed Judea and Samaria. When Israel defended itself again in 1967, it did not “occupy” those areas—it recovered control over them. As Benjamin Netanyahu vividly declared during his first term as Prime Minister of Israel, “If the Arabs would lay down their arms, there would be no war. If the Israelis would lay down their arms, there would be no Israel.” He made the same points brilliantly before the U.S. Congress recently. Israel is democracy’s only ally in the Middle East, and we must stand with her against those—like Iran and its puppets, Syria, Lebanon, Hamas, and Hezbollah—who openly threaten to annihilate her.