Article 80 elephant in room at 80th General Assembly talk fest

193 UN members have been flagrantly violating article 80 of the UN Charter for decades in failing to acknowledge that article 80 preserves the right of the Jewish people under the 1922 Mandate for Palestine to reconstitute the Jewish National Home in any part of the territory of former Palestine located west of the Jordan River.

A Memorandum submitted in April 1945 by the Jewish Agency for Palestine to the United Nations Conference on International Organization drafting the UN Charter in San Francisco had requested:

“In view of the unique character of the Palestine Mandate and the special rights of the Jewish people thereunder, no action should be taken at the San Francisco Conference which would be inconsistent with or prejudicial to the special rights of the Jewish people under the Balfour Declaration and the Palestine Mandate, and all such rights shall be expressly reserved and safeguarded”

This submission saw Article 80 inserted in the United Nations Charter.

Jewish Agency Representative David Ben Gurion reminded the United Nations Special Commission on Palestine on 7 July 1947:

“...there is also Article 80, and Article 80 was adopted for this very special reason of Palestine. Article 80 speaks also about trusteeship agreements: "… until such agreements have been concluded . . . ", and they are not yet concluded, and we do not offer to conclude a trusteeship agreement, "nothing in this Chapter shall be construed in or of itself to alter in any manner the rights whatsoever of any states or any peoples or the terms of existing international instruments to which Members of the United Nations may respectively be parties." This is the special Article of the Charter which applies to Palestine. It was introduced only because of Palestine.”

193 UN members have been flagrantly violating article 80 of the UN Charter for decades in failing to acknowledge that article 80 preserves the right of the Jewish people under the 1922 Mandate for Palestine to reconstitute the Jewish National Home in any part of the territory of former Palestine located west of the Jordan River.

A Memorandum submitted in April 1945 by the Jewish Agency for Palestine to the United Nations Conference on International Organization drafting the UN Charter in San Francisco had requested:

“In view of the unique character of the Palestine Mandate and the special rights of the Jewish people thereunder, no action should be taken at the San Francisco Conference which would be inconsistent with or prejudicial to the special rights of the Jewish people under the Balfour Declaration and the Palestine Mandate, and all such rights shall be expressly reserved and safeguarded”

This submission saw Article 80 inserted in the United Nations Charter.

Jewish Agency Representative David Ben Gurion reminded the United Nations Special Commission on Palestine on 7 July 1947:

“...there is also Article 80, and Article 80 was adopted for this very special reason of Palestine. Article 80 speaks also about trusteeship agreements: "… until such agreements have been concluded . . . ", and they are not yet concluded, and we do not offer to conclude a trusteeship agreement, "nothing in this Chapter shall be construed in or of itself to alter in any manner the rights whatsoever of any states or any peoples or the terms of existing international instruments to which Members of the United Nations may respectively be parties." This is the special Article of the Charter which applies to Palestine. It was introduced only because of Palestine.”

The UN’s insistence in working towards a two-state solution that ignores article 80 and recognises no vested Jewish rights existing in Judea and Samaria (West Bank) and Gaza has been the downfall of the UN’s credibility and impartiality – expressed no more clearly than in Security Council Resolution 2735 passed on 10 June 2024 when the Security Council:

“Reiterates its unwavering commitment to the vision of the two-State solution where two democratic States, Israel and Palestine, live side by side in peace within secure and recognized borders, consistent with international law and relevant UN resolutions, and in this regard stresses the importance of unifying the Gaza Strip with the West Bank under the Palestinian Authority;”

Denying vested Jewish rights reserved under article 80 and calling for a second Arab State – in addition to Jordan – in the territory of the Palestine Mandate allocated for the Jewish people – led Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to defiantly declare at the United Nations on 26 September:

“Israel will not allow you to shove a terror state down our throats. We will not commit national suicide”

Why not create the State of Palestine in 78% of the Palestine Mandate territory located east of the Jordan River where article 80 does not apply?

Trump needs to rethink his refusal to allow Israel to annex any part of Judea and Samaria (West Bank):

“I will not allow Israel to annex the West Bank. Nope, I will not allow it. It’s not going to happen,”

Trump’s White House meeting with Netanyahu on September 29th promises to be a watershed for the Jewish people.

Please join my Facebook Page: “Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine supporters”

Author’s note: The cartoon was drawn in September 2015 by Yaakov Kirschen aka “Dry Bones”- one of Israel’s foremost political and social commentators – who passed away on 14 April 2025 and whose cartoons graced the columns of Israeli and international media publications for decades.