Brussels, May 15th, 2025 – Addressing Members of the European Parliament on the eve of the Israeli Independence Day on Tuesday, 13th May, Canadian human rights lawyer Dr. Jacques Gauthier called the current campaign to ask for a recognition of a Palestinian state “the greatest denial of justice in the history of mankind.” In his lecture on “The question of Jerusalem in international law” he spelled out how the Jewish people were given title deed to Jerusalem as well as to Judea and Samaria at the International Peace Conference in San Remo on April 25, 1920, by the Supreme Council of the Principal Allied Powers. These rights were later confirmed by the Treaty of Sèvres in August 1920 and Treaty of Lausanne in 1923. The Council of the League of Nations unanimously approved the Mandate for Palestine on July 24, 1922.
The Mandate for Palestine promised a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine, thus recognising the historical connection between the Jewish people and Eretz Israel as grounds for reconstituting their national home in that country, which had been renamed “Palestinian Syria” by the Romans after the expulsion of the Jews in AD 135.
President Chaim Weizmann would later call the decision “the most momentous event in the history of our people since the Exile.” “When certain leaders of the nations are now pushing for a Palestinian state on territories designated to the Jewish people, they are doing so in breach of international law. You cannot impose a Palestinian state”, Gauthier explained.
In a European Report talk show earlier in the day, Latvian MEP and Professor in Political Science Ivars Ijabs was on the same line as Gauthier as he reiterated that “a new Palestinian state can only be created through negotiations and only when the circumstances are right. With Hamas still in power these are hardly the ideal circumstances”, he said.
Commenting on the current campaign led by French president Emmanuel Macron to recognise a Palestinian state at the upcoming UN conference on the two state solution in New York on 2-4 June, Gauthier refuted the comparison between Russian occupation of Crimea and Israel’s “occupation” of Judea and Samaria by saying that “you cannot occupy what already belongs to you”. Israel has title deed to these territories through decisions made in San Remo by the Supreme Council of the Principal Allied Powers and later confirmed by the Council of the League of Nations in 1922. It is only Israel who can relinquish these rights; they cannot be taken away by anyone. The current plans, as spelled out in a recent UN General Assembly resolution of December 2024 (Peaceful settlement of the question of Palestine) to create a new Islamic Palestinian Arab state which would include East Jerusalem as its capital is attempting to cleanse the Old City of Jerusalem of Jews within one year.
“This is the most severe violation of human rights that I have experience during my whole life as a human rights lawyer,” Gauthier said.
It is noteworthy that this campaign is being led by many of the same countries that made up the Council of the League of Nations in 1922 which unanimously voted for the Mandate for Palestine in 1922. These nations include France, Spain and Belgium.
The lecture by Jacques Gauthier was part of the ECI Young Leaders Academy and included opening and concluding remarks by MEP Bert-Jan Ruissen (The Netherlands), MEP Alexandr Vondra (Czechia), MEP Beatrice Timgren (Sweden) and MEP Nicola Procaccini (Italy).
