Lawyers representing Israel in its bid to defend the vacuation/Compensation Law (the Disengagement Plan), negate the Balfour Declaration as a basis for Jews to settle in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza.

The lawyers made their controversial legal point in a brief submitted to the High Court of Justice, which is hearing some 10 petitions submitted against the disengagement plan.

The Balfour Declaration was issued in 1917 by the British Government, which controlled the Holy Land – including Jordan – at the time. The document, which was later confirmed by the League of Nations, states, “His Majesty’s Government views with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people… “

This declaration gave the Zionist movement a legal jump-start, and inspired the Jews to build their national homeland throughout the Land of Israel west of the Jordan River. Even after the UN Partition Plan gave away parts of the Land and assigned them to a new Arab state that never arose, Israel did not give up its claim on these areas. In fact, in the War of Independence, it conquered some of them and incorporated them in the emerging State. Areas included in this category include Be’er Sheva, the Beit Shemesh area, and much of the Galilee.

The State’s legal team’s brief of today states, “The petitioners’ claim that the [Balfour Declaration] is valid for all of the Mandatory Land of Israel – even those areas that were not given to Israel or to Jordan or did not become an independent state – is not comprehensible.”

By taking this position, the Government of Israel is essentially saying that Israel has no claim on anything other than the Partition Plan borders. So states Shimon HaLevi, a legal expert who is taking part in the legal battle against the disengagement plan. HaLevi says that the Government basically renders the Balfour Declaration obsolete and irrelevant, and has “thus adopted not only a leftist position, but the position of our worst enemies.”

“In essence,” HaLevi told Arutz-7 today, “this returns us to the 1947 Partition borders, which are three small areas in the north, west and south connected by a safe passage.”

HaLevi said that legal experts around the world have determined that in light of the Balfour Declaration, the Jewish communities of Yesha (Judea, Samaria and Gaza) cannot be considered illegal. In a press conference on February 2, 1981, HaLevi said, then-U.S. President Ronald Reagan stated, “I disagreed when the previous administration referred to them [settlements] as illegal – they’re not illegal.”

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