100 years of shame: annexation of Palestine began in San Remo

No enforcement mechanism was ever put into place for the inhabitants of Palestine whose historic homeland was being unfairly confiscated.

By Ramzy Baroud  | Mondoweiss  | May 6, 2020

The establishment of that Jewish State… hinged on some vague ‘understanding’ that ‘nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine.’

One hundred years ago, representatives from a few powerful countries convened at San Remo, a sleepy town on the Italian Riviera. Together, they sealed the fate of the massive territories confiscated from the Ottoman Empire following its defeat in World War I.

It was on April 25, 1920, that the San Remo Conference Resolution was passed by the post-World War I Allied Supreme Council. Western Mandates were established over Palestine, Syria and “Mesopotamia” – Iraq. The latter two were theoretically designated for provisional independence, while Palestine was granted to the Zionist movement to establish a Jewish homeland there.

“The Mandatory will be responsible for putting into effect the (Balfour) declaration originally made on November 8, 1917, by the British Government, and adopted by the other Allied Powers, in favor of the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people,” the Resolution read.

The Resolution gave greater international recognition to Britain’s unilateral decision, three years earlier, to grant Palestine to the Zionist Federation for the purpose of establishing a Jewish homeland, in exchange for Zionist support of Britain during the Great War.

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