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The San Remo conference was an international meeting of the post-World War I Allied Supreme Council, held in Sanremo, Italy, from 19 to 26 April 1920. It was attended by the four Principal Allied Powers of World War I who were represented by the prime ministers of Britain (David Lloyd George), France (Alexandre Millerand) and Italy (Francesco Nitti) and by Japan's Ambassador K. Matsui.

After 25 years of research, lawyers Howard Grief and Dr. Jacques Gauthier have come to the conclusion that the San Remo Conference in general and the San Remo Resolution in particular constitute the foundation documents of the modern State of Israel under international law.

Resolutions passed at this conference determined the allocation of Class "A" League of Nations mandates for administration of the former Ottoman-ruled lands of the Middle East.

The precise boundaries of all territories were left unspecified, to "be determined by the Principal Allied Powers," and were not finalized until four years later. The conference decisions were embodied in the Treaty of Sèvres (Section VII, Art 94-97). As Turkey rejected this treaty, the conference's decisions with regard to the Palestine mandate were finally confirmed by the Council of the League of Nations on 24 July 1922.

Background

During the meetings of the "Council of Four" in 1919, British Prime Minister Lloyd George stated that the McMahon-Hussein Correspondence was a treaty obligation and the agreement with Hussein was the basis for the Sykes-Picot Agreement which proposed an independent Arab state or confederation of states. In July 1919 the parliament of Greater Syria had refused to acknowledge any right claimed by the French Government to any part of Syrian territory.

On 30 September 1918 supporters of the Arab Revolt in Damascus declared a government loyal to the sharif of Mecca, who had been declared "King of the Arabs" by religious leaders and other notables in Mecca. On 6 January 1920 Prince Faisal initialed an agreement with French Prime Minister Clemenceau which acknowledged "the right of the Syrians to unite to govern themselves as an independent nation". A Pan-Syrian Congress, meeting in Damascus, had declared an independent state of Syria on 8 March 1920. The new state included Syria, Palestine, Lebanon and portions of northern Mesopotamia which had been set aside under the Sykes-Picot Agreement for an independent Arab state or confederation of states. King Faisal was declared the head of state. At the same time Prince Zeid, Faisal's brother, was declared regent of Mesopotamia.

History

The San Remo conference was hastily convened. It was attended by by the prime ministers of Great Britain, France, and Italy, and representatives of Japan, Greece, and Belgium. Great Britain and France both agreed to recognize the provisional independence of Syria and Mesopotamia, while claiming mandates for their administration. Palestine was composed of the Ottoman administrative districts of southern Syria. Under international law, premature recognition of its independence would be a gross affront to the government of the newly declared parent state. It could have been construed as a belligerent act of intervention without any League of Nations sanction.

For France, the San Remo decision meant that most of its claims in Syria were internationally recognized and relations with Faysal were now subject to French military and economic considerations. The ability of Great Britain to limit French action was also significantly diminished. France issued an ultimatum and intervened militarily at the Battle of Maysalun in June 1920, deposing the Arab government and removing King Faisal from Damascus in August 1920. In 1920, Great Britain appointed Herbert Samuel, 1st Viscount Samuel as high commissioner and established a mandatory government in Palestine that remained in power until 1948.

Article 22 of the covenant was written two months before the signing of the peace treaty. It was not known at that time to which territories paragraphs 4, 5 and 6 would relate. The territories which came under the regime set up by this article were three former parts of the Ottoman Empire and seven former overseas possessions of Germany referred to in Part IV, Section I, of the treaty of peace. Those 10 territorial areas were originally administered under 15 mandates.

Resolutions

The decisions of the San Remo conference confirmed the mandate allocations of the First Conference of London (February 1920). The San Remo Resolution adopted on 25 April 1920 incorporated the Balfour Declaration of 1917. It and Article 22 of the Covenant of the League of Nations were the basic documents upon which the British Mandate for Palestine was constructed. Under the Balfour Declaration, the British government had undertaken to favour the establishment of a Jewish national home in Palestine without prejudice to the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country. Britain received the mandate for Palestine and Iraq; France gained control of Syria, including present-day Lebanon.

The Founding Document of Eretz Israel/Palestine

April 24, 1920: The Balfour Declaration becomes a legal document

The San Remo Conference took place from April 18, to April 26, 1920. It's goal was to decide upon the future fate of all of Turkey’s ex-territorial possessions lying outside Anatolia, which, as a consequence of World War I, had ceased to be under the sovereignty of the Ottoman Empire, as laid out in the Treaty of Versailles.

The San Remo Conference constitutes the first acknowledgement and recognition under modern international law, of the legal title of the Jewish People to the mandated territory of Palestine, in all of its historical parts and dimensions. This decision was made by the Supreme Council of the Principal Allied Powers (France, Great Britain, Italy and Japan; USA as an observer). The Principal allied Powers gave their approval to the Balfour Declaration of November 2, 1917, thereby giving international legal effect to its provisions. This act constituted a conversion of the Balfour Declaration from a mere statement of British government policy, into a binding legal document. This is further evidenced by the significant change in the nature and wording of Britain’s pledge or promise to the Jewish People to establish in Palestine a national home for the Jewish People: (November 2, 1917: “their best endeavors to facilitate the achievement of the object” April 24, 1920: “responsible for putting into effect” this declared object.)

Henceforth the Balfour Declaration was to constitute and become the legal and constitutional basis for administering Palestine, in conjunction with the general provisions of the newly-established Mandates System created by Article 22 of the League of Nations Covenant. 3

Origin of the Name Palestine

The Christian and Zionist provenance of the name Palestine stems from the common denotation of the region as Palestine, the Holy Land and/or Judea to denote the Land where Jesus was born among Christians. At the First Zionist Congress in August 1897, the Zionists adopted the Basle Program themselves using the name Palestine, in order to appeal to the Christian world. On July 1917, the term Palestine was included in the Zionist formula of the Balfour Declaration. After April 1920 Palestine became the official name of the country where the Jewish National Home and Jewish State would be established. The British military and civil administration rendered this name in Hebrew in all legal documents and postage stamps as Palestina followed by the letters aleph, yod in brackets (for Eretz Yisrael, giving it an official status.

Synonymy of Eretz Israel and Palestine

The establishment of a Jewish National Home in Palestine simultaneously meant creating the state and country of Palestine. Palestine in its entirety was reserved exclusively for the self-determination of the Jewish People. The Foreign Secretary f the Great Britain, Lord Curzon stated: “Palestine was in the future to be the National Home of the Jews throughout the world." France based its objection to inserting the Balfour Declaration in the Peace Treaty with Turkey precisely on the ground that doing so meant the actual establishment of a Jewish State which it strongly opposed but which it implicitly conceded to be the case after it was agreed by the Supreme Council to insert an obligatory version of the Balfour Declaration into the Treaty of Sèvres.

Those two new entities in international law (Palestine and Eretz Israel/the Jewish National Home) were therefore synonymous since they were both created at the very same time for the very same purpose. The Jewish National Home was to be housed in Palestine and Palestine was to be the Jewish National Home, i.e., the Jewish State, otherwise Palestine would never have been legally created on April 25, 1920 as a separate country.

France insisted on maintaining “existing traditional rights” of the French and Latin Catholic Community in Palestine while adding “civil” and/or “political” rights to the rights awarded to the “existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine” of the Catholic religious community. Catholics in general and France in particular felt strong political and religious ties with Palestine because of the Crusades. It is important to understand that political rights meant individual electoral rights and not collective political rights. This ruled out any kind of national autonomy or self-determination for the Arabs living in Palestine.

Thus, in the Draft Resolution concerning Mesopotamia, Palestine and Syria the title of sovereignty over Palestine was exclusively vested in the Jewish People.

April 25, 1920: Britain to be the Mandatory Power

A mandate was conferred upon Great Britain for reconstituting the Jewish National Home in Palestine for an ancient nation most of whose members lived outside Palestine and only for that specific objective.

The boundaries of Palestine were to be based on the biblical formula „from Dan to Beersheba“ based on the historical connection of the Jewish People with the entire Land of Israel, referring to the Promised Land that had been conquered, settled and ruled by the Twelve Tribes of Israel and their descendants, in both the First and Second Temple periods. The eventual demarcation of the boundaries of both Syria and Palestine was delayed and finally taken care of at the Franco-British Boundary Convention of December 23, 1920, as were the boundaries of Mesopotamia and Syria. The historical formula, “from Dant to Beersheba” was thrice agreed upon previously by Britain and France: 1. Lloyd George-Clemenceau agreement of December 1, 1918 2. British aide-memoire dated September 13, 1919 (Anglo French negotiations at Deauville) 3. London Conference on February 21, 1920

The San Remo Resolution

The Draft Resolution was approved on April 25, 1920 and adopted Final Resolution concerning Mesopotamia, Palestine and Syria, constituting a document referred to as San Remo Resolution. This Resolution in regard to Palestine stands on its own merit as an act of basic international law which was the legal source of British power of government in Palestine under the Mandates System. The San Remo Resolution is referred to as the “Mandates Article” in the Treaty of Peace with Turkey (Treaty of Sèvres of August 10, 1920). Furthermore, this very same name has been applied to Article 22 of the League of Nations.

By virtue of the San remo Resolution, the title of sovereignty over Palestine was exclusively vested in the Jewish People. In addition the secret Sykes-Picot Agreement of May 1916 was officially replaced and terminated in addition with all other secret and illegal British Treaties from 1915-17: 1. the Constantinople Agreement of March-April 1915 with France and Russia 2. the Treaty of London of April 26, 1915 with France and Italy 3. the McMahon Pledge made to the Sherif of Mecca, Hussein Ibn-Ali, on October 24, 1915 4. the Sykes-Picot Treaty of May 9 and 16, 1916 subsequently adhered to by Russia 5. the Agreement of Saint Jean de Maurienne of April 1917 with France and Italy

The Sykes-Picot Agreement was further repudiated by virtue of the Covenant of the League of Nations in the Treaty of Versailles of June 28, 1919. Article 18 states the repudiation of secret diplomacy as confirmed by virtue of the United Nations Charter (Article 102). Furthermore, the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties of 1969 requires treaties to be transmitted to th Secretariat of the United Nations for registration and publication (Article 80).

The San Remo Resolution on Palestine named the Jewish People as the national beneficiary of the principle of self-determination in the Mandate Charter, for the purpose of applying the general provisions of Article 22 of the Covenant of the League of Nations. The dual or joint application of the Balfour Declaration with Artcile 22 of the Covenant of the League of Nations meant that Palestine was reserved for the Jewish People as a whole (estimated 14.000.000), not merely fot the approximately 60.000 Jews living in Palestine at the end of the Great War. Nor was Palestine reserved for the estimated half-million Arabs then living there, even though they compromised the great majority of the relatively small population of the country.

Thus the Jewish People were given a recognized international status by becoming the beneficiary of the right of national independence under Article 22 in conjunction with the Balfour Declaration. The Arabs were mentioned only once in the English version of the minutes (though not in the French version) by Lord Curzon in regard to safeguarding the rights of religious minorities under the first proviso of the Balfour Declaration that applied to the existing non Jewish communities in Palestine. It is thus clear that non-Jewish in this context centered on religious communities only and did not deal with national communities. Thus is may justly be assumed that Lord Curzon referred to Moslems, rather than Arabs.

Jewish De Jure Sovereignty over Palestine

As a direct result of naming the Jewish People as the national beneficiary of the mandate for Palestine and basing the future administration of the country upon both the Balfour Declaration and Article 22 of the League of Nations Covenant, de jure sovereignty or legal title over Palestine was implicitly transferred to the Jewish People by the Supreme Council of the Principal Allied Powers who acted as the disposing agent under international law, by virtue of their military victory over the Central Powers. The Jewish People received this devolution of sovereignty or legal title from the very same source that the inhabitants from Syria and Mesopotamia also received it, by the considered decision of the Supreme Council of the Principal Allied Powers. No valid complaint can therefore be seriously made by Arab spokesmen that the Supreme Council had no right to grant the Jewish people what it also granted to the new Arab states who were, in fact, the greatest recipients of Allied munificence.

Once international law in the form of the San Remo Resolution recognized that de jure sovereignty over all regions of historical Palestine and the Land of Israel had been vested in the Jewish People, neither the Supreme Council of the Principal Allied Powers, nor the Council of the League of Nations nor its successor, the United Nations could or can thereafter revoke or alter Jewish sovereignty by a new decision. Legal ownership or title to Palestine had been permanently transferred to the Jewish People and any right the Principal Allied Powers previously had in regard to this country had disappeared after its official creation. In the case of the League of Nations, it never had any right in its Covenant to deprive the Jewish People of its sovereignty over any part of Palestine, the designated Jewish State under Mandate. Nor does the United Nations possess this right in its Charter. If either of these bodies really had such a right in regard to Palestine and the Land of Israel, the sovereignty of every state in the world over its own territory would be put in jeopardy.

The San Remo Resolution on Palestine is the base document upon which the Mandate for Palestine was constructed and to which it had to conform.

The San Remo Resolution on Palestine is the foundation document of the State of Israel, the legal existence of which is directly traceable from that document and not, as commonly believed, from the U.N. General Assembly Partition Resolution of November 29, 1947.

Anniversary celebrations

In 2010, the town of San Remo marked the 90th anniversary of the conference with several events organized by the European Coalition for Israel and Canadian Supporters for Israel's Rights. A panel was held under the auspices of San Remo mayor Maurizio Zoccarato on the subject of the San Remo's legal significance for the status of Israel and Jerusalem under international law. Panel participants included Deputy Speaker of the Knesset MK Danny Danon, Italian MP Fiamma Nirenstein and international legal expert Jacques Gauthier of Toronto.

According to Gauthier, the San Remo Conference was a “key defining moment in history” on the issue of title to Jerusalem, a sentiment expressed at the time by Chaim Weizmann, who called it the “most important moment for the Jewish people since the exile.” At the 90th anniversary celebrations, Gauthier stated that the Jewish claim submitted to the world powers at San Remo was to be recognized as a people under the law of nations, to have the Jewish historical connection to what was then known as “Palestine” recognized; and to be granted the right to “reconstitute” Jewish historical rights in Palestine. While the Arabs also had claims on Ottoman territory, they were not specific to Palestine or Jerusalem.

Text of Resolution

San Remo Resolution - April 25, 1920

It was agreed –

(a) To accept the terms of the Mandates Article as given below with reference to Palestine, on the understanding that there was inserted in the process-verbal an undertaking by the Mandatory Power that this would not involve the surrender of the rights hitherto enjoyed by the non-Jewish communities in Palestine; this undertaking not to refer to the question of the religious protectorate of France, which had been settled earlier in the previous afternoon by the undertaking given by the French Government that they recognized this protectorate as being at an end.

(b) that the terms of the Mandates Article should be as follows:

The High Contracting Parties agree that Syria and Mesopotamia shall, in accordance with the fourth paragraph of Article 22, Part I (Covenant of the League of Nations), be provisionally recognized as independent States, subject to the rendering of administrative advice and assistance by a mandatory until such time as they are able to stand alone. The boundaries of the said States will be determined, and the selection of the Mandatories made, by the Principal Allied Powers.

The High Contracting Parties agree to entrust, by application of the provisions of Article 22, the administration of Palestine, within such boundaries as may be determined by the Principal Allied Powers, to a Mandatory, to be selected by the said Powers. The Mandatory will be responsible for putting into effect the declaration originally made on November 8, 1917, by the British Government, and adopted by the other Allied Powers, in favour of the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.

La Puissance mandataire s’engage a nommer dans le plus bref delai une Commission speciale pour etudier toute question et toute reclamation concernant les differentes communautes religieuses et en etablir le reglement. Il sera tenu compte dans la composition de cette Commission des interets religieux en jeu. Le President de la Commission sera nomme par le Conseil de la Societe des Nations.

The terms of the mandates in respect of the above territories will be formulated by the Principal Allied Powers and submitted to the Council of the League of Nations for approval.

Turkey hereby undertakes, in accordance with the provisions of Article to accept any decisions which may be taken in this connection.

(c) Les mandataires choisis par les principales Puissances allies sont: la France pour la Syrie, et la Grande Bretagne pour la Mesopotamie, et la Palestine.

In reference to the above decision the Supreme Council took note of the following reservation of the Italian Delegation:

La Delegation Italienne en consideration des grands interets economiques que l’Italie en tant que puissance exclusivement mediterraneenne possede en Asie Mineure, reserve son approbation a la presente resolution, jusqu’au reglement des interets italiens en Turquie d’Asie. }}

See also

• Mandate for Palestine
• Zionism
• History of Israel

References

1. "The Council of Four: minutes of meetings March 20 to May 24, 1919", pages 1 thru 8
2. King Husain and the Kingdom of Hejaz, by Randall Baker, Oleander Press, 1979, ISBN 0-900891-48-3, page 161
3. Jordan: Living in the Crossfire, Alan George, Zed Books, 2005, ISBN 1-84277-471-9, page 6
4. Britain, the Hashemites and Arab Rule, 1920-1925, by Timothy J. Paris, Routledge, 2003, ISBN 0-7146-5451-5, Page 69
5. King's Complete History of the World War, William C. King, The History Associates, 1922, page 665
6. Britannica online: San Remo Conference: Retrieved 18 May 2013
7. International Law, Papers of Hersch Lauterpacht, edited by Elihu Lauterpacht, CUP Archive, 1970, ISBN 0-521-21207-3, page 116 and Statehood and the Law of Self-determination, D. Raič, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 2002, ISBN 90-411-1890-X, page 95
8. France in Syria: The abolition of the Sharifian government, April-July 1920
9. Herbert Samuel and the Palestine Problem
10. FRUS, The Paris Peace Conference, 1919, Volume XII Treaty Of Versailles, Annotations Of the Text
11. 90 years after San Remo, MK Danon vows to 'raise awareness of Israel's rights under int'l law', Jerusalem Post
12. Forget politics – Who has legal right to Jerusalem? Jerusalem Post

Further reading

• Fromkin, David (1989). A Peace to End All Peace. New York: Henry Holt.
• Stein, Leonard (1961). The Balfour Declaration. London: Valentine Mitchell.
• "Conferees Depart from San Remo", New York Times, April 28, 1920, Wednesday. "CONFEREES DEPART FROM SAN REMO; Millerand Receives Ovation from Italians on His Homeward Journey. RESULTS PLEASE GERMANS; Berlin Liberal Papers Rejoice at Decision to Invite Chancellor to Spa Conference."

External links

• August 1920 Treaty of Sèvres, articles 94 and 95 recapitulating the San Remo Resolution
• July 1922 text of the Palestine Mandate
• Palestine under the British Mandate, 1923-1948 (map)

v t e Key documents of Mandatory Palestine
1910s	Damascus Protocol The Future of Palestine McMahon–Hussein correspondence Sykes–Picot agreement Balfour Declaration Hogarth message Bassett letter Declaration to the Seven Anglo-French Modus Vivendi Anglo-French Declaration Faisal–Weizmann agreement King–Crane Commission report
1920s	San Remo Resolution Palin Commission report Paulet–Newcombe Agreement Haycraft Commission report Churchill White Paper League of Nations mandate Constitution Palestinian citizenship order
1930s	Shaw Commission report Western Wall Commission report Hope Simpson report Passfield white paper MacDonald letter Peel Commission report Woodhead Commission report White Paper of 1939
1940s	Biltmore Programme Harrison Report Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry report (Survey of Palestine) Statement of Information Relating to Acts of Violence Morrison–Grady Plan Bevin Plan UNSCOP Ad Hoc Committee UN Partition Plan American trusteeship proposal for Palestine Israeli Declaration of Independence
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