LETTER: Writer’s anti-Israel argument based on false contention
The West Bank and Gaza were illegally occupied by Jordan and Egypt between 1948 and 1967 — a fact not mentioned by Gunvant Govindjee
Gunvant Govindjee ignores the one critical issue that confounds his contention that Israel is an occupying entity in Judea and Samaria (“Israel violates convention over vaccines for Palestine (https://www.businesslive.co.za/bd/opinion/letters/2021-01-19-letter-israel-violates-convention-over-vaccines-for-palestine/)”, January 19). These settlements constitute about 2% of the area involved, far less than the Arab settlements that live peacefully and productively in Israel.
The area was part of the Palestine Mandate, which prescribed the “close settlement” by Jews everywhere in their historic and ancient homeland of “Palestine” — whose borders then ran from the River Jordan to the Mediterranean. The so-called “occupied territories” of the West Bank actually form part of the original land of Palestine within which the British were enjoined to establish the Jewish national home. To claim that it is now occupied is wrong in law — it was a mandatory trust given to Britain. ..
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