A letter being circulated in the House of Representatives, by four members of Congress, including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), calls for the Israeli government to stop all considerations regarding the “annexation” of the Jordan Valley.
The letter itself has gained significant momentum as Representatives Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), Raul Grijalva (D-AZ), André Carson (D-IN), Nydia Velázquez (D-PR), Bobby Rush (D-IL), Jesús Garcia (D-IL), and Danny Davis (D-IL), as well as Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), have added their signatures.
Whether you support or condemn Israel’s decision to extend sovereignty over the Jordan Valley, there are 4 things you should know about the letter.
First, the letter repeatedly and erroneously uses the term: Annexation.
The term annexation refers to a state’s decision to impose its legal authority over a territory that was forcibly acquired from another state with the use of force or aggression. As International Human Rights Lawyer, Arsen Ostrovsky and Colonel Richard Kemp note:
“First, all apply to territory acquired by force or in an offensive war. The Six-Day War, in which Israel was compelled to defend itself from neighboring Arab armies seeking the Jewish state’s destruction, was defensive. Second, in 1967, there was no ‘state of Palestine,’ nor does such an entity exist today under international law.”
With a total disregard for international law, the letter’s vocabulary not only, and wrongly, insinuates that history witnessed the existence of a sovereign ‘Palestine,” but it ignores Israel’s indigenous and legal claims to the territory as established by the 1920 San Remo Resolution.
Secondly, the letter, dubiously, speculates that annexing parts of the West Bank will “perpetuate” and “entrench” human rights violations against Palestinians.
The signatories of this letter might benefit from carrying out a comparative analysis, in regard to standards of living, of Palestinians pre-1967 and Palestinians post-1967.
According to Ephraim Karsh’s, Director of the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, and author of Arafat’s War, explains:
“The number of Palestinians working in Israel rose from zero in 1967 to 66,000 in 1975 and 109,000 by 1986, accounting for 35 percent of the employed population of the West Bank and 45 percent in Gaza.”
Karsh also adds:
“By 1986, 92.8 percent of the population in the West Bank and Gaza had electricity around the clock, as compared to 20.5 percent in 1967; 85 percent had running water in dwellings, as compared to 16 percent in 1967; 84 percent had electric gas ranges for cooking, as compared to 4 percent in 1967…”
And in regards to Palestinian access to education, Karsh details:
“At the onset of the Israeli occupation in Gaza and the West Bank, not a single university existed in these territories. By the early 1990s, there were seven such institutions, boasting some 16,500 students as compared with six in Israel or seven in the Irish Republic.”
The statement on this letter ignores an indisputable truth – Israel has done more for the Palestinian people than their own leadership has. If the signatories truly cared about human rights violations against Palestinians, they would note that the Palestinian leadership regards homosexuality and the sale of property to Jews as crimes; it continues to indoctrinate children with antisemitism and senseless hatred; it has invested millions of dollars in foreign aid to fund terrorist activities rather than social welfare programs, and it has repeatedly turned down generous offers for peace that would have granted the Palestinian people independence.
Thirdly, the letter threatens to “pursue conditions” on the $3.8 billion in US military funding to Israel if the Israeli government moves forward with “annexing” Jordan Valley. Such a move could have devastating impacts for Israelis, Palestinians, and American citizens.
A significant portion of the $3.8 billion received by Israel for military funding is allocated for defensive weapons systems such as the Iron Dome, David’s Sling, and Arrow-3. If Israel were unable to defend her skies from the thousands of indiscriminate rockets fired from Hamas-held Gaza, it would possibly be forced to adopt more offensive tactics to protect her citizens. Such tactics could result in the tragic loss of Palestinian and Israeli civilian lives.
Moreover, the cut in funding would harm Americans during a devastating pandemic. According to the US Department of Commerce, in between 2009-2014, 254,562 jobs were directly supported by the US-Israel Free Trade Agreement. Every state in the US enjoys its own economic ties with the State of Israel. In 2014, at the very lowest, is Alaska which accumulated nearly $300,000 in trade with Israel. In the same year and at its highest, is New York, which accumulated $6.3 billion in trade with Israel. The impacts of reducing aid to Israel would only add to the hardships that many American families are already experiencing.
Lastly, the letter makes the claim that under Article 2(4) of the UN Charter, “annexation” is illegal, such a move would constitute a violation of international law by Israel.
To set the record straight on the letter’s faulty nomenclature, Israel does not propose annexing any territory; rather it is considering extending sovereignty over the Jordan Valley. It appears that the signatories of this letter are unfamiliar with the uti possidetis iuris doctrine. Put aptly, when new countries emerge from old ones, or from colonial empires, the last official international borders constitute the new boundary lines.
Professor Eugene Kontorovich, of the Antonin Scalia School of Law, explains how this doctrine applies in Israel’s case:
“In 1922, the League of Nations established a new “country” to serve as the Jewish national home. This was the Mandate for Palestine. Under certain provisions of the Mandate, Palestine was partitioned at the Jordan River to create the country of Transjordan (now called Jordan) on its eastern bank. After that, the international frontiers of Mandatory Palestine ran from the river to the sea. The League of Nations Mandate for Palestine provides the legal basis not only for Israel’s borders, but for those of Jordan as well, and indeed for Jordan’s entire existence.”
Whether you support Israel’s decision to extend sovereignty or not, it is imperative to recognize the fallacies of this letter. Not only do the signatories wrongly accuse Israel of, potentially, violating international law, but it paints a misleading image to the majority of Americans who remain committed to the US-Israel alliance.
Yoni Michanie is a Middle East analyst, Israel advocate, and former IDF Paratrooper. He can be reached on Twitter, @YoniMichanie.