NUTS and BOLTS of the legal aspect of "occupation" by Frmr Israeli Amb to USA Michael Orren

NUTS and BOLTS by Frmr  Israeli Amb to USA Michael orren “In 1947, the UN declared that Palestine, as it was then known, would be partitioned into two states – an Arab state and a Jewish state. Notice, not a Palestinian state, but an Arab state. The Palestinians didn’t quite exist yet, and at least not on the international radar. And the Arabs went to war to destroy the Jewish state when it was created on May 14, 1948.

And the city of Jerusalem was divided. The eastern part of the city was occupied by the Jordanians, the West Bank was occupied by the Jordanians.

In June, 1967, the Jordanians attacked Israel again. Israel repulsed the attack, reunited Jerusalem under Israeli rule, and captured the West Bank, or as we call it, Judea and Samaria.

It is not occupied [under] international law, because the West Bank and East Jerusalem [were] never part of a recognized sovereign country. Nobody in the world, except for Britain and Pakistan, recognized the Jordanian annexation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem. So the entire international law claim is spurious.

But when Israel reunited the city…, the Western Wall is in the eastern part of the city. The old city is in the eastern part of the city. We certainly can’t consider our homeland for 3,000 years to be occupied territory. You know, tell a member of the Sioux Nation that his tribal lands are occupied and he can’t live on them. That’s what the UN is telling us. They’re telling us more than that, that by living in them, we’re criminals.”