The San Remo Conference was an international meeting of four of the leading Allied powers of World War I, known as the post-World War I Allied Supreme Council. It was held in San Remo, Italy, and was attended by the prime ministers of Britain, France, and Italy, and Japanese Ambassador K. Matsui.

Its resolution that a Jewish state must be established in Palestine, based on the Balfour Declaration of 1917, was confirmed by the League of Nations in 1922.

Following World War I and the fall of the Ottoman Turkish Empire, it became necessary to determine how the formerly Ottoman-ruled lands would be ruled. The ruling powers decided the Holy Land was to be entrusted to a Mandatory, as the San Remo resolution stated: “The High Contracting Parties agree to entrust… the administration of Palestine, within such boundaries as may be determined by the Principal Allied Powers, to a Mandatory, to be selected by the said Powers.”

The resolution continued: “The Mandatory will be responsible for putting into effect the declaration originally made on November 8,1917 by the British Government, and adopted by the other Allied Powers, in favour of the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.”

The international community, the Alllies in 1920, and the League of Nations in 1922 thus officially recognized the national legal rights of the Jewish People in the Land of Israel. Significantly, similar rights for the Arabs in the area were specifically not recognized.

The resolution mentioned that the “civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine” must be upheld – but specifically left out any mention of “political” or “national” Arab rights. A parallel League of Nations resolution did grant the Arabs “political” rights in four other mandates – Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and later Trans-Jordan.

Last year, the European Coalition for Israel marked the 90th anniversary of San Remo, noting that it essentially gave birth to the League of Nations’ “British Mandate for Palestine,” which laid down the Jewish legal right to settle anywhere in western Palestine between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. Later, the 51 member countries of the League of Nations unanimously approved the Jews’ historical connection with the Holy Land.

The Fatah movement has realized that the international treaty signed at San Remo Conference in 1920 grants internationally-accepted Jewish national rights in the Holy Land. Fatah is 47 years old, and the San Remo Conference was held 91 years ago.

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A new video produced by Project Interchange calls on Jews to show the world the real Israel – a place of freedom and opportunity, and not the oft-portrayed hostile, militaristic, aggressive and war-torn place.

Project Interchange, an educational institute of the American Jewish Committee aims to bring opinion leaders and policy makers to Israel for a week of intensive travel and learning.

“The great success of Project Interchange is not that it provides seminar participants with all the answers – but it inspires them to delve more deeply, to think of Israel more carefully and with greater empathy and to seek an even deeper understanding of the political, religious, cultural and strategic factors at issue in the Middle East today,” according to Stuart Eizenstat, former U.S. Ambassador to the European Union.

A new film – the second in the “Eyewitness 1948″ short film series produced by Toldot Yisrael and the History Channel – depicts the dramatic and critical Partition Vote in the United Nations in 1948 that led to the formation of the State of Israel.

Toldot Yisrael is a Jerusalem-based nonprofit organization dedicated to recording and sharing the first-hand testimonies of the men and women who helped found and build the State of Israel. Its first video featured six brave Western Wall Yom Kippur shofar-blowers who risked and faced British wrath – and sometimes imprisonment – for their efforts.

This second film depicts the November 29, 1947 vote in the U.N. temporary headquarters in Lake Success, New York that gave the Jewish People a small part of the meager area of Palestine that lies west of the Jordan River (the remainder was given to what was named Transjordan, now Jordan) in which to build the Jewish State.

A two-thirds majority was required, and after it became clear that the Jewish People had been granted part of their historic homeland for their state, Jews around the world celebrated and danced in the streets.

Interviewees such as Suzy Eban, wife of legendary U.N. Ambassador Abba Eban, Uri Lubrani, and others tell of their own personal efforts and impressions of that time – describing the tensions leading up to the vote, and the euphoria they experienced afterwards.

The film, entitled “November 29, 1947: The Story of a Vote,” together with its predecessor on the Western Wall shofar blowers, form the centerpiece of an educational pilot program for the U.S. being developed with The iCenter and made possible through the generous support of the Jim Joseph Foundation and others.

Over 400 video interviews have been conducted with those who were involved during the pre-State struggle and the momentous events of 1948. “Our aim is to conduct hundreds more over the next several years,” says Aryeh HaLivni, founder and director of Toldot Yisrael, “while it is still possible.”

Toldot Yisrael’s footage serves as primary source materials for educational curricula, bringing to life the founding of the State of Israel for today’s young Jews.