- Documents found in Japanese archives confirm the central role played by the Japanese Government in the creation of the Jewish State

Tokyo, 25th April, 2012 – On Wednesday a triple anniversary was marked in the Japanese Parliament in Tokyo, as the 92nd anniversary of the San Remo Resolution coincided with the 64th anniversary of Israel's Independence Day and the 60th anniversary of the establishment of bilateral relations between Israel and Japan. However this was the first time that the San Remo Resolution had been officially presented in the Japanese Parliament. This was despite the fact that the Government of Japan was one of the four countries who signed this historic resolution which paved the way for the creation of the modern state of Israel in 1948. Just one day before the conference, the original Japanese documents from the San Remo meeting were found in the national archives in Tokyo and were presented to the Parliament at the seminar.

In a special seminar co-hosted by Member of Parliament Marutei Tsurunen and the European Coalition for Israel, the legal significance of the San Remo Resolution was explained in detail by international lawyer Dr. Jacques Gauthier, who has spent over twenty years researching the conflicting legal claims to Jerusalem under international law. In his opening remarks, Mr Tsurunen mentioned how, thanks to the European Coalition for Israel, the message of San Remo has been shared in parliaments around the world.

The Israeli Ambassador to Japan, Nissim Ben-Shitrit, thanked ECI and Jacques Gauthier for sharing these long-hidden documents with the nations of the world in order to better explain the legal foundations of the modern state of Israel.

Founding director of ECI, Tomas Sandell, said in his opening remarks that ECI is working to promote a sustainable peace between Israel and the Palestinians based on negotiations, historical facts and international law.

In his keynote speech, Dr. Jacques Gauthier presented the historical facts which, at the San Remo meeting of April 25th, 1920, led to the legal conclusions that the Jewish people had the right to reconstitute their national home in their ancestral homeland of Israel. At the meeting, conducted by the Supreme Council of Principal Allied Powers, Japan was one of four member countries that signed the resolution. The other nations were Italy, France and Britain. The United States attended the meetings as an observer.

-’ Japan is a society of law and order. Laws and rules are honoured in this country,’ he told the Members of Parliament. ’These are historical facts that any one of you can verify and they need to be honoured.’

He went on to say that ”both Jews and Arabs should be celebrating the San Remo Resolution because it gave land to the Arabs, as new nation states were created in Syria, Iraq and Lebanon. But whereas in the other mandates the land was given to the inhabitants of those territories, in Palestine, only the Jewish people were given political rights and statehood: other people were given only civil and religious rights."

Hence, the first president of the modern state of Israel Chaim Weizmann called April 25th, 1920 ”perhaps the most important day in the history of the Jewish people.”

According to Gauthier, ”nothing has happened since 1920 that would have changed the decisions which were made in San Remo. The San Remo Resolution and the principles of the Mandate for Palestine are still relevant to this day”, he said.

What was news to the audience however, was that Japan had been one of the main architects in helping to establish the right of an ancient people, the Jewish people, to their own homeland in Palestine.
- ’We cannot deny the rights given to the Jewish people in San Remo’, Gauthier concluded.

The legal significance of the San Remo Resolution has been explained for a wider audience in the 15 minute video ”Give Peace a Chance” which can be found on www.givepeaceachance.info