Volume XXIII – Number 2
Sean Carey
Abstract: This article examines the complexities of the right of non-self governing territories to self-determination and national sovereignty in international law, and how these rights often conflict with the interests of the international community. The dispute between Jewish Zionist people and Arab inhabitants in Palestine provides a landmark case of this conflict, especially as these issues in the region rose to the forefront of international law during the transition of international legal power from the League of Nations to the United Nations General Assembly. Although the idea to partition Palestine to please both Arab Palestinian and Jewish Zionist populations was discussed during Great Britain’s mandate of the region by the authority of the League of Nations, it was not until the establishment of the United Nations General Assembly that the region was politically divided. This decision by the United Nations General Assembly demonstrates the organization’s lack of commitment to the principles of self-determination and national sovereignty of people in non-self governing territories that were values of the League of Nations and reiterated in the Charter of the United Nations. After a thorough review of international law and organizational guidelines of both the League of Nations and the United Nations, this article argues that the actions of the United Nations General Assembly violated the rights of the inhabitants of Palestine to self-determination and urges the international community to take action to repair the injustice that was served to them in 1948.
Keywords: Palestine, United Nations, General Assembly, self-determination, League of Nations, Jewish Zionist, homeland, national sovereignty
