I’d like to thank EcoPeace for their statements, thank you.

We come together at a painful time for the Jewish people. On Saturday, as Jews everywhere were concluding the holiday of Passover, a gunman ran into the Chabad of Poway, California and opened fire. 

Over 100 people, in the middle of prayer, were forced to duck for cover as the bullets flew across the room. 

Lori Kaye was shot and killed as she jumped in the line of fire to protect Rabbi Yisrael Goldstein, who founded the synagogue and sustained injuries.

Despite having been shot, Rabbi Goldstein continued his sermon. Thirty-four-year-old Almog Peretz and eight-year-old Noya Dahan were also shot and injured.

This is the second synagogue shooting in six months. It is unacceptable that we live in a time in which worshippers must be on guard, or look behind their backs while praying, out of fear of being shot. We pray for Chabad of Poway and stand with the families affected during this painful time.

Distinguished colleagues,

When we last gathered in this chamber, the President of the Council, the Ambassador of

Germany, asked me to explain how Israel implements international law, specifically with regard to the Jewish communities of Judea and Samaria.

Today, I will provide the answers.

But before we discuss international law, we must understand the context and facts.

Today, I will present to you the four pillars that prove the case for Jewish ownership of the Land of Israel.

The first pillar is the Bible. The Jewish people’s rightful ownership of Eretz Yisrael – the Land of Israel – is well documented throughout the Old Testament and beyond.

The second pillar is history. The Jewish claim to the Land of Israel is confirmed, time and again, not just through Jewish history, but through the history of the world.

The third pillar is the legal claim. Our rights to the land are codified in international law,

including in the documents that founded this very body.

And the fourth pillar is the pursuit of international peace and security. A stronger and safer Israel means a stronger and safer world.

It is through these four pillars, Mr. President, that I will provide you with the answers to your

questions.

Let us discuss our first pillar of proof: the Bible.

The Jewish people’s right to the Land of Israel is mentioned over a dozen times in the Tanakh – the Hebrew bible – which includes the Torah (the Old Testament) the Prophets and the Writings. In the book of Genesis, the very first book of the Old Testament, God says to Abraham, and I will read in Hebrew:

And I will now read the translation in English:

“And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you

throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant. And I will give to you, and to your

descendants after you, all the land of Cana’an, for an everlasting possession. And I will be their God.”

This is the deed to our land.

From the book of Genesis; to the Jewish exodus from Egypt; to receiving the Torah on Mount Sinai; and to the realization of God’s covenant in the Holy Land of Israel; the Bible paints a consistent picture. The entire history of our people, and our connection to Eretz Yisrael, begins right here.

It is not just the Hebrew Bible or the fifteen million Jews worldwide that accepts this right. It is accepted across all three monotheistic religions – Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The Quran itself accepts the divine deed of the Jewish people to the Land of Israel.

Mr. President,

The second pillar is the history of the Land of Israel and the Jewish people over the past two millennia. The Jewish kingdom in Eretz Yisrael comprised twelve tribes. The largest of those tribes, the tribe of Judah, lived in the area now known as Judea.

We all know the words “Jew” and “Jewish.” “Jew” and “Jewish” come from “Judea.”

This was the kingdom over which King David and King Solomon ruled. It was the kingdom,

with Jerusalem as its capital. It was home to the first Temple, destroyed by the Babylonians in the year 587 BCE, and the second Temple, destroyed by the Romans in the year 70 CE.

When the Romans destroyed the Jewish kingdom, they sent our people into the 2000-year exile that kept us from our land. Even the Romans themselves admitted the land was ours. 

Those of you have visited Rome may have seen, that Emperor Titus famously commemorated his victory and the Jewish expulsion by building an enormous arch on the Via Sacra in Rome. If you look at the Arch, it includes an illustration of his men carrying away the menorah from the Jewish Temple.

But even though the Romans knew that the Land was ours and we belonged in it, they attempted to erase our age-old connection to the land by renaming it “Syria-Palestina.”

Why Palestina? They attributed it as a southern province of the Syrian empire.

This is how the narrow strip of land in Eretz Yisrael, nestled between Egypt in the south and

Lebanon in the north, came to be called “Palestine.”

For the next 2000 years, the Land of Yisrael was conquered by the Crusaders, followed by

the Ottoman Empire. But despite centuries of wars and conquests, the Jewish people never left.

A Jewish community remained in Eretz Yisrael, the Land of Israel, throughout this entire time.

Although most of our community was forced into exile by the Roman Empire, we knew that

someday we would return to our ancient homeland.

For two millennia, Jews across the world continued to pray three times every day for our long-awaited​ return home to Zion, to Jerusalem. As we just said on Passover last week, as we do every year, “Next year in Jerusalem!”

Mr. President,

If the Jewish people’s deep and ancient roots in the Land of Israel are not sufficient proof, let us consider international law – the third pillar.

In 1917, Lord Balfour, Britain’s Foreign Secretary, issued a statement of British support for the establishment of, and I quote, “a national home for the Jewish people.” The Balfour Declaration designated this national homeland in Eretz Yisrael.

The Balfour Declaration also, in its own words, specifically endorsed the Zionist cause. As Lord Balfour wrote, and I quote, “I have much pleasure in conveying to you, on behalf of His

Majesty's Government, the following declaration of sympathy with Jewish Zionist aspirations, which has been submitted to, and approved by, the Cabinet.”

After the Ottoman Empire surrendered in World War One, the British took legal ownership over the Land of Israel. With that legal ownership, they were able to issue the Balfour declaration and commit to helping establish a national home for the Jewish people in our historic homeland.

In 1922, the mandate of the League of Nations not only states its support for the establishment of a Jewish national home, it encouraged and facilitated the return of Jews in the diaspora to our homeland. It confirms, and I quote, “the historical connection of the Jewish people with Palestine and to the grounds for reconstituting their national home in that country.”

These documents are Zionist documents. By definition, Zionism is the realization of the right of the Jewish people to self-determination and sovereignty in the land of Israel. That is what

Zionism means – no more, no less. It appears in international law, in essence and word-for-word.

In 1945, the UN charter was adopted. Drafted in the wake of the Holocaust, it guarantees the right of peoples to exercise self-determination. It also refers to, and I quote, “the inherent right of individual or collective self-defense if an armed attack occurs against a Member of the UN.”

One people’s pursuit of self determination could not undermine the safety and security of another nation.

Two years later, the UN Partition Plan called for the establishment of a Jewish state and an Arab state in the Land of Israel. 

What did we do? 

We accepted it. 

But the Palestinians did not. 

Instead of peace, they chose war and opened fire on the Jews. Our small, tiny, newly declared nation was suddenly under attack.

In 1948, on the last day of the British Mandate, Israel declared independence and immediately was attacked by five Arab armies that joined the Palestinians, hoping to destroy it. Israel won that war, and the hope and future of the Jewish people was saved.

But the war of 1948 did not end with peace. It ended with armistice agreements between Israel and its neighbors. The armistice lines between Israel and Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon were never considered international borders. They were simply lines designating the end of the first battle in the Arab war against Israel. Jordan maintained control of Judea and Samaria, and Egypt controlled the Gaza Strip. These agreements were formed in the absence of permanent peace treaties, which would only be signed decades later.

Mr. President,

It was the Arabs who insisted that the armistice lines would not be permanent borders. As stated in the Jordanian-Israeli agreement of 1949, these lines, and I quote, “are agreed upon by the Parties without prejudice to future territorial settlements or boundary lines.”

Because these lines are not borders, the Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria, to this day, do not cross any international borders. They are built on strategic land for Israel's security and, as agreed by the parties in the Oslo Accords, would be classified as final status issues.

Mr. President,

To support the right of Israel to exist in our homeland is, therefore, essential to international

peace and security – the final pillar.

For decades, many Arab leaders have chosen the sword over the olive branch long before even one of these “so-called” settlements was established. 

You know when the PLO was established?

The Palestinian Liberation Organization? In 1964, three years before 1967. What did they need to liberate before 1967? And in 1964, not a single settlement existed in Judea and Samaria, and our right to exist was still rejected.

To blame the Jewish communities of Judea and Samaria for the lack of peace between Israelis and Palestinians would be a deliberate oversight of history at best.

The Arabs rejected opportunities for peace time and again:

The 1937 Peel Commission Report? The Arabs rejected it.

The 1947 UN Partition Plan? Rejected.

The 1948 Israeli offer for truce? Rejected.

The 2000 Camp David Summit? Rejected.

The 2001 Taba Summit? Rejected.

The 2007 Annapolis Conference? Rejected.

The 2008 offer of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert? We are still waiting for an answer on

that.

The 2014 Secretary of State Kerry’s Peace Initiative? Abbas chose Hamas.

And today, in the upcoming US peace plan? The Palestinians say it is “dead on arrival.”

Mr. President,

It weakens the mandate of this body, which is tasked with making our world more peaceful and secure, to continue blaming the side that offers solutions, and reward the side that rejects them. It is dangerous to praise the side that encourages hatred and bankrolls terrorism.

Palestinian rejectionism is chronic. 

Palestinian leaders refuse to acknowledge the right of the Jewish people to self-determination in the Land of Israel and insist on returning to the land in droves. This behavior directly contradicts all four pillars of the past and keeps us locked from forging peace in the future.

There should be no reward for rejectionism.

There should be no prize for aggression.

Mr. President,

Real peace will be possible when the four pillars of the past are accepted and realized. But real peace will come when the four pillars of the future are put into action.

These are the four pillars of the future:

First: the Palestinians must accept and recognize the Jewish State of Israel. No Palestinian leader has ever said those words.

Second: the Palestinians must end their campaign of incitement. Enough is enough. How can the international community expect us to make any concessions to a leader who pays his people to kill ours?!

Third: regional cooperation. We are already working together with many of our neighbors on

security, on common goals and on building relations. We want these relationships to flourish and present themselves in the open.

And fourth: we will never do or agree to anything that compromises our security. We want a

peaceful future with our neighbors. But our security is non-negotiable, and we will decide

where to draw the line.

Mr. President,

We are ready to work together. We are ready to talk. And we are ready to create a better future for our children. 

It is only when the four pillars of the past and the four pillars of the future are accepted that peace will come.

Thank you.