Twenty-six years before David Ben-Gurion declared the State of Israel, the international community had already recognized the Jewish people's right to it.
On that day, the Council of the League of Nations adopted the Mandate for Palestine. Its text was explicit, giving recognition to "the historical connection of the Jewish people with Palestine and to the grounds for reconstituting their national home in that country." This was not a sympathetic gesture or a vague promise of goodwill. It was a binding instrument of international law, affirmed by all fifty-one member states of the League, which at that time made up the entire organized international community.
It was one deliberate step in a documented chain. The Balfour Declaration of 1917 stated the intention. San Remo, in April 1920, gave it the force of an Allied decision. The Mandate of July 1922 made it binding law. And the significance did not expire with the League itself. When the United Nations took its place, its Charter carried forward the obligations of its predecessor. The rights recognized in 1922 were never revoked. They were inherited.
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