UN had no right

Your September 23 editorial “The US and Jerusalem” should have been headlined “The US, the UN and Jerusalem.”

In his authoritative treatise “The Legal Foundation and Borders of Israel under International Law,” the late Howard Grief, a Jerusalem advocate, established beyond any doubt that the UN was prohibited by Article 80 of its charter (also known as the “Jewish Peoples” clause) from partitioning Palestine into two states, one Jewish and one Palestinian. Therefore, all actions taken by the UN regarding alleged Israeli irregularities concerning the so-called West Bank are illegal and without force and effect.

Moreover, it must be noted that in point of fact and law, no such entity as a “Palestinian people” exists. This fabrication was first conceived by the grand mufti of Jerusalem in 1920 in order to challenge the Zionist presence in Palestine, and was later adopted by Yasser Arafat and his acolytes to challenge Israeli sovereignty in Israel proper, as well as in the West Bank. Notable Arab writers of the 1960s disputed and condemned this newly invented designation as blasphemy, insisting that they were Arabs, not Palestinians. Nonetheless, this nonsense carries on to this very day.

In sum, under international law as correctly read by Grief, Israel’s sovereignty over the entire land, inclusive of Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem, remains inviolate. The UN must correct its original error and transmit the corrected status to the world community.

ARTHUR SAFIR Warminster, Pennsylvania The writer is a former deputy attorney general of the state of New Jersey.