UN Secretary-General Guterres ignores Jordan-Palestine nexus

February 11, 2018 by David Singer
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United Nations Secretary-General – Antonio Guterres – displayed how little he knows of the history, geography and demography of Palestine when addressing the opening of the 2018 Session of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People (“CEIRPP”).

Established by the General Assembly in 1975 – CEIRPP was responsible for the publication in 1978 of a false narrative of the Arab-Israel conflict – “The Origins and Evolution of the Palestine Problem 1917-1947″  (“UN Study”) – which has undoubtedly influenced United Nations thinking and decision-making.

Three examples highlight the falsity and outright bias of this UN Study:

  1. Deliberately misrepresenting General Assembly Resolution 181 spoke of a “Palestinian Arab State” – when claiming:

“After investigating various alternatives the United Nations proposed the partitioning of Palestine into two independent States, one Palestinian Arab and the other Jewish, with Jerusalem internationalized.”

The actual wording of Resolution 181 stated:

Independent Arab and Jewish States and the Special International Regime for the City of Jerusalem, set forth in Part III of this Plan, shall come into existence in Palestine….”

  1. Omitting any mention of the fact that 78% of Palestine had become an independent Arab State in 1946 and been renamed the Hashemite Kingdom of Transjordan.

 

  1. Falsely alleging:

 “The decision on the Mandate [for Palestine] did not take into account the wishes of the people of Palestine”

The evidence contradicting this falsehood actually sits in the United Nations own archives.

That evidence comprises:

  • Meetings of the Palestine Arab Delegation (Delegation) with the recently appointed Secretary of State for the Colonies – Winston Churchill – on 12, 22 and 23 August 1921
  • Letters from 21 February 1922 to 23 June 1922 between the Delegation and the Secretary of State for the Colonies during the Delegation’s stay in the Hotel Cecil in London.

CEIRPP concealed this crucial archival evidence – falsely inferring the Palestinian Arabs wishes had not been taken into account when in fact they had been fully considered.

Secretary-General Guterres told the CEIRPP opening session:

“I remain steadfast in the United Nations and my commitment to supporting the parties in their efforts to make the two-State solution a reality.

There is no Plan B.

A two-State solution is the only way to achieve the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people and secure a sustainable solution to the conflict.”

Secretary-General Gutteres is apparently unaware that:

  • The term “Palestinian people” was invented in the 1964 Palestine Liberation Organization Charter which also specifically excluded any claim to exercise regional sovereignty “over the West Bank in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan” and “on the Gaza Strip”
  • The Palestinian Arabs were never mentioned in the 1922 League of Nations Mandate for Palestine – being grouped in with “the existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine”
  • The “two-State solution” – Israel and Jordan – first envisaged in 1922 and actually proposed in 1937 – was accepted by the Jews but rejected by the Arabs on both occasions. It was 95% achieved in 1994 when the Israel-Jordan Peace Treaty was signed.
  • The “inalienable rights of the Palestinian people” went walkabout between 1948 and 1967 when an additional Arab State between Jordan and Israel could have been created with the stroke of an Arab League pen after all Jews living there had been forcefully expelled.
  • There are many Plan B’s involving Jordan – the major part of former Palestine – which remains the key to resolving this conflict.

Secretary-General Gutteres – with the greatest respect – needs a crash-course in the actual – not fictitious – history of the 100 years-old Arab-Jewish conflict.

Relying on this false UN Study to gain his knowledge and understanding of the conflict is not recommended.

David Singer is a Sydney Lawyer and Foundation Member of the International Analysts Network

 

Comments

6 Responses to “UN Secretary-General Guterres ignores Jordan-Palestine nexus”
  1. David Schulberg says:

    Does Secretary-General Gutteres read J-Wire? What David Singer tells us is all well and good but who can put this information in front of the man himself?

    • david singer says:

      David

      Might I suggest you send Mr Gutteres a copy of the article and ask for his response.

      You can do so by writing to him at:
      http://www.un.org/en/contact-us/index.html

      If another 200 people took the time and trouble to do likewise that could make an impact.

      If you get a reply – post it here.

      The article has already gone viral and can now be read on 3920 web sites.

  2. Leon Poddebsky says:

    David, why do you have “the greatest respect” for someone who heads an organisation that is supposed to work for peace, but who acts to undermine it?

    U Thant, UN head in 1967, emboldened the Arabs and triggered the Six-Day War. Gutteres
    is acting similarly.

    • david singer says:

      Leon

      Mr Guterres has had a distinguished career and has only been Secretary General since 1 January 2017. I respect the man and his record.

      His comments to which I referred to in my article are those mouthed daily in the UN by people who are no friends of the Jews. If he is told nothing different then he will naturally believe what they are saying.

      The deliberate attempt to exclude Jordan from any responsibility for ending the Arab-Jewish conflict has poisoned UN decisions.

      Mr Guterres needs to understand that Jordan is 78% of former Palestine. When he understands that – he will find lots of possible solutions for ending the conflict other than the unrealistic and thoroughly discredited “two-state solution”

  3. Leon Poddebsky says:

    It is not unlikely that Gutteres does know the truth, but a basic unwritten prerequisite for the position of UN head is to favour the Arab war against the Jews, using lies when necessary.
    How else can we explain the blatancy, frequency and effrontery with which successive UN heads tell lies when it comes to this particular conflict?
    The last UN head who actually dared tell the truth about it was Trygvie Lie, who declared in 1948 that the Arabs had committed the first act of international aggression since the end of World War Two, when they invaded Israel.

    • david singer says:

      Leon

      Mr Guterres is hopefully a different Secretary General to many past Secretaries- General. At this stage I would give him the benefit of the doubt.

      He cannot rely on what he reads in the CEIRPP study. It lacks veracity and ought to be trashed.

      That a UN Committee such as CEIRPP can so blatantly lie and mislead and get away with it is disgraceful.

      Mr Guterres needs to look at this biased Committee being allowed to continue to function.

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