Brussels, April 22nd, 2020 – In a letter sent to the European Coalition for Israel ahead of the 100th anniversary of the San Remo Resolution this weekend, Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte has officially recognized the importance of this landmark event. The San Remo Resolution, which promised the Jewish people a national home in Palestine, was adopted in this small Ligurian city on April 25th, 1920. It was on this day that the Supreme Council of the Principal Allied Powers (France, Great Britain, Italy and Japan, with the USA as an observer) met in San Remo as commissioned by the adjourned Paris Peace Conference to re-assign sovereignty over the territories of the former Ottoman Empire. Their aspiration was decidedly not colonial; rather they sought the gradual establishment of new sovereign states in the Middle East, based on territorial claims submitted by the Arab delegation and the Zionist Organisation.
These proceedings resulted in the establishment of Syria and Lebanon under French Mandate and Mesopotamia (Iraq) and Palestine under British Mandate.
In his letter in support of this centenary event, Conte reiterates how the San Remo Resolution incorporated the Balfour Declaration into International Law, in that it expressed support for the creation of a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine.
“One of the seeds of the olive tree which was to become the symbol of the modern State of Israel was planted in San Remo”, Conte writes.
In a video message, the Mayor of Sanremo, Alberto Biancheri, confirms how, one hundred years ago, this small city on the Italian riviera was at the centre of world politics as the future of the Middle East was being decided in San Remo.
“It could perhaps be said that the Jewish state was born in San Remo”, he notes, underlying the importance of the peace conference which established a place for the city in world history. Next week the city council will open a unique exhibition with pictures and documents from the national archives in Rome, documenting the San Remo Peace Conference.
These encouraging messages from Italy come at a time when the Italian people have been going through one of the worst crises in modern times as the COVID-19 pandemic has hit the country with great devastation, causing close to 25,000 casualties.
As organizers of the live broadcast from Jerusalem to mark the centenary of the San Remo Resolution, we in ECI are deeply moved by the sincere affirmations of the historic role of their city expressed by the Italian Prime Minister and the Mayor of Sanremo under these exceptional circumstances.
Whilst is not possible at this time to hold a conference on site in the city of Sanremo, the European Coalition for Israel is committed to returning to Sanremo as soon as the circumstances permit, to celebrate this landmark event. This will then not only be a celebration of the legal foundations of the modern State of Israel, but also an expression of solidarity with the Italian people.