File talk:PalestineAndTransjordan.png
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Transjordan was not an integral part of Palestine
Transjordan never was "an integral part of Palestine". The text of the Palestine Mandate itself said that the boundaries had not yet been determined.
According to British Foreign Policy documents the river Jordan was the frontier between Palestine and Transjordan for all practical purposes from the establishment of the first OETA. See J. P. Bannerman editor, Palestine and Transjordan: 1914-1923, Issue 83 of Foreign policy documents, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, 1982, page 27. Suzanne Lalonde says that no official maps of the OETAs were ever published. She suggests that it is likely that the British used a 1918 map of Palestine and cites Yitzak Gil-Har's descriptions. See Suzanne Lalonde, Determining boundaries in a conflicted world: the role of uti possidetis, McGill-Queen's Press, 2002, ISBN 077352424X, page 94
Yitzhak Gil-Har said that "Palestine and Trans-Jordan emerged as states; This was in consequence of British War commitments to its allies during the First World War." According to Gil-Har "Great Britain had always treated Trans-Jordan as a political entity completely separate from Palestine. Its inclusion within the framework of the Palestine Mandate was an outcome of the political events following the fall of Faisal's government in July 1920. The Palestine–Trans-Jordan boundary served as a political barrier separating two states. Therefore, the postulation by some writers that the boundary was merely administrative in its character, delineating two territories subjected to the one British rule within the British Empire has no foundation in reality." Boundaries Delimitation: Palestine and Trans-Jordan, Yitzhak Gil-Har, Middle Eastern Studies, Vol. 36, No. 1 (Jan., 2000), pp. 68–81:
The Transjordan region was part of the territory pledged to Hussein in 1915. See "British Commitments to King Husein, Political Intelligence Department, Foreign Office, November 1918, CAB 24/68 (formerly GT 6185)" Balfour wrote a memo in September of 1919 which indicated, at that time, that Palestine was the territory laying to the west of the Jordan river and that King Hussein of the Hedjaz was supposed to delineate the borders under the terms of the 1915 McMahon-Hussein agreement. See Memorandum by Mr. Balfour (Paris) respecting Syria, Palestine, and Mesopotamia' , EL Woodward and Rohan Butler, Documents on British Foreign Policy, 1919-1939. (London: HM Stationery Office, 1952), pp 340-348. ISBN:0115915540
The Transjordan region had been allocated to an Arab State under the terms of the Sykes-Picot agreement and by the Versailles Peace Conference. The first formal attempt to establish interim boundaries was an "Aide-memoire in regard to the occupation of Syria, Palestine and Mesopotamia pending the decision in regard to Mandates, 13 September 1919" It divided the territory between the British, French, and Arab administered OETAs. It was premised upon the "principles of the Sykes-Picot agreement" and "the Sykes-Picot line". It mentions "the Arab State" that the British and French governments had committed to support in Zones A and B under the terms of Sykes-Picot and stipulates that the area was to be administered by the Arab forces under the control of the Emir Faisal. The Aide-memoire is available in J. C. Hurewitz (ed), The Middle East and North Africa in world politics: a documentary record ... No Official maps of the OETAs were ever published.
The text of the draft mandate, as of August 1920, after San Remo Conference mentions the Treaty of Sevres; British "sovereignty"; but does not contain article 25 or any mention of the territory east of the Jordan river. See the 1920 Yearbook of the League of nations, Volume 1,
Aaron Klieman wrote that the French formed a new Damascus state after the San Remo Cconference and the battle of Maysalun. As a result, Curzon instructed Vansittart (Paris) to leave the eastern boundary of Palestine undefined. On 21 March 1921, the Foreign and Colonial office legal advisers decided to introduce Article 25 into the Palestine Mandate. It was approved by Curzon on 31 March 1921, and the revised final draft of the mandate, which includied Transjordan in the mandate for the first time, was forwarded to the League of Nations on 22 July 1922. See Aaron S. Klieman, "Foundations of British Policy In The Arab World: The Cairo Conference of 1921",Johns Hopkins, 1970, ISBN 0-8018-1125-2, pages 228–234
In 1925 an arbitration court established by the Council of the League of Nations ruled that Palestine and Transjordan were separate states with entirely separate organisation. The Supreme Court of Palestine ruled in 1945 that Transjordan was a foreign state. See States as international persons, International Law Reports, By H. Lauterpacht, Cambridge University Press, 1994, ISBN 0-521-46357-2, page 17. harlan (talk) 21:29, 13 September 2010 (UTC)
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