soc.history.war.world-war-ii

"Hal Hanig" wrote:

>Michele, cherie, it was the League of Nations that created the British
>mandated territory in Palestine, not the UN.

Actually, the Mandate was granted by the Allied
Supreme Council in 1920; it was not ratified by
the League of Nations until June 1922.

>It was comatose when most of these events took place...

The League remained in existence until April 18, 1946.

>the UN wasn't formed until 1947.

The UN existed as the alliance of nations against the Axis
from January 1, 1942, with the "Declaration by United Nations"
of Allied war aims - basically a reiteration of the Atlantic
Charter and a mutual pledge of no separate peace.

The UN as an institution was founded on October 24, 1945,
with the ratification of the Charter by the five Security
Council permanent members.

>Your comment
>overlooked the fact that the Balfour Declaration opened up Palestine to
>refugee Jews as a homeland and the British chose to ignore it.

The Balfour Declaration was merely a statement of
preference by the British government. It was not
binding on the British government nor anyone else.

The Mandate for Palestine issued by the League
incorporated the Declaration, with the very important
addition that

nothing should be done which might prejudice the civil
and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities
in Palestine...

which made the goals of the Declaration very
problematic, as the "existing non-Jewish communities"
objected vigorously to the "Jewish homeland" project.

British actions under the Mandate were torn between
these incompatible directives.
--
| People say "There's a Stradivarius for sale for a |
| million," and you say "Oh, really? What's wrong |
| with it?" - Yitzhak Perlman |