22 Friciay, , Arzrilit -19 . 4,, TF1 ).[PPWIT,! .44Wisti NEW Students debate Jerusalem BY HENRY SREBRNIK Special to The Jewish News ANN ARBOR — The status of Jerusalem, always a contentious issue, has be- come front-page news as a result of the U.S. President- ial election campaign. Democratic Party Presidential candidates nary Hart and Walter Mondale, hoping to appeal to Jewish voters in key pri- mary states like New York, have both in recent weeks come out in favor of moving the United States Embassy from Tel Aviv to Israel's capital. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, the Senator from New York, has intro- duced legislation in Con- gress which would require the government to do just that. Although Israel is the only country in the world where an American em- bassy is located outside the capital city, the Reagan Administration has made it clear it will oppose the move. It was within this context that a number of students at the University of Michigan Hillel Foundation discussed the question of Jerusalem and its holy places at a sym- posium held last week. The students have been attend- ing a two-month course entitled "The Arab-Israeli Conflict from the Perspec- tive of International Law" which was taught by Doron Levinson. A former officer in the Israeli Army who had been badly wounded in the 1973 Yom Kippur War, Levinson has since gone on to obtain law degrees from Tel Aviv University and U-M. He is now studying towards a doctorate at the University of Michigan Law School. Levinson's course dealt with the religious and secu- rity importance of Jerusalem, _i_nd itg status in international law. Students learned about the Balfour Declaration, the League of Nations Mandate assigned to Great Britain in 1922, the 1947 United Nations parti- tion resolution passed by the General Assembly, and the 1967 reunification of West and East Jerusalem after the Six-Day War. Those students who spoke at the symposium concen- trated on the question of Is- raeli rights over both the old and new cities of Jerusalem, as well as the future of the holy sites. INITIATION Get ready for summer. Now, for a limited rime, you can join Southfield's finest Athletic & Social Club at 75% off initiation. Enjoy the tennis courts, the pools, free aerobics, jogging tracks, private restaurant and lounge, Nautilus and Universal- equip- ment, whirlpools and saunas, plus much more. Why settle for less when you con have it all at... HAMILTON PLACE Athletic and Social Club 30333 Southfield Rd. (between 12 & 13 Mile Rds.) CALL NOW 646-8990 HURRY! OFFER ENDS SOON! Tmtsigig Hall presented by: HALL REAL ESTATE GROUP The students agreed that, before 1917, the Ottoman Empire had sovereignty over all of Palestine, includ- ing Jerusalem. This was tranferred to the victorious Allied Powers after World War I; in turn, the League of Nations, with England as the Mandatory power, was granted the power to govern Palestine. However, the League ceased to exist as a result of World War II, and it is un- clear whether its rule in Palestine devolved upon the UN. In any case, the No- vember 1947 partition reso- lution, which called for Arab and Jewish states, the Doron Levinson internationalization of Jerusalem, and an economic union, was not legally bind- ing, but only a recom- mendation, and the Arab re- jected it. In effect, there was a "sovereignty vacuum" in Jerusalem in 1947 — it was terra nullius, "a land with- out owners." In such cases, sovereignty is a matter of "first come, first served," though it can only be ac- quired through lawful acts. In 1948, upon being invaded by its Arab neighbors, Is- rael used the right of self- defense, in accordance with Article 51 of the UN Char- ter, and thus acquired rights over the western part of Jerusalem. In February 1949, the Knesset moved to Jerusalem and the city be- came Israel's capital. Jordan, on the other hand, entered the Old City of Jerusalem unlawfully in 1948 — articles 2(4) and (6) call on all states to refrain from the use of force to settle disputes — and annexed it illegally in 1950. Jordan's 19-year rule in East Jerusalem was marked by desecration of the Old City's synagogues, the vandaliza- tion of the ancient Jewish Quarter and the destruction of Jewish cemeteries. There were occasional border inci- dents involving snipings, resulting in deaths. The Jordanians also refused Jews access to the Western Wall, contrary to their commitments. Since Jordan attacked Is- rael in 1967, the Jewish state acted lawfully in tak- ing over the Old City. Israel has legal sovereignty over both sectors of Jerusalem, the students concluded. Since the reunification of Jerusalem, Moslems, Chris- tians and Jews have all been free to visit their re- spective holy places. Yet there are those who remain opposed, and have brought forward alternatives, in- cluding the -full inter- nationalization of Jerusalem; making the Old City a mini-state, like the Vatican; creating a bi- national Israeli and Jorda- nian administration in the Old City; and even re- partitioning Jerusalem be- tween Israel and a future Palestinian state. These ideas, it was de- cided, were both impractical and unnecessary. In any case, Jerusalem is more im- portant to Jews than it is to Christians and Moslems; only under Jewish jurisdic- tion has it been a capital, never under Arab or Tur- kish rule. It is the living center of the Jewish faith. Some also felt the Arabs could not be trusted with control of the holy places, given Jordan's record. The symposium was par- ticularly outraged by the American reluctance to move the embassy. "The U.S. has no right to deter- mine where a country's cap- ital is," said one, and there should certainly be no ques- tion about Israel's tenure in West Jerusalem. Another felt it was "ridiculous" that such a proposal should be construed as pro-Israeli — it was only common sense. Is- rael, it should be remem- bered, was an American ally, and gave more support to the U.S. in the United Nations than did any other country. "Evenhandedness" on the part of Washington just got both the Arabs and the Israelis angry. Apart from finding it "in- comprehensible" that the embassy was not located in Jerusalem, the seminar also disapproved of another dip- lomatic anomaly: the fact that the U.S. maintains a consulate in Jerusalem which operates totally in- dependently of the Tel Aviv embassy and reports di- rectly to Washington. This, too, was a way of signalling that the U.S. did not recog- nize Israeli sovereignty in the city. One student felt the consulate_ should at least answer to the em- bassy, "until we get a President courageous enough to move the em- bassy to Jerusalem." Haddad's successor takes over Tel Aviv (JTA) — Gen. Antoine Lahad, a Maronite Christian, took command Wednesday of the South Lebanon Army (SLA), suc- ceeding the late Maj. Saad Haddad who was Israel's closest ally in Lebanon until his death Jan. 14. Haddad, who was post- humously promoted to the rank of colonel, commanded what was then known as the Christian militia in south Lebanon although many of its soldiers were Shiite Mos- lems. He was consulted on the appointment of Lahad to succeed him as a comman- der of the newly formed SLA, to which he agreed shortly before his death. The succession was not immediately announced in order to allow Lahad time to move his 'parents, wife and son safely from northern Lebanon to their new home at Marjayoun. Lahad is believed to be a follower of former President. Camille Chamoun who backs the government of President Amin Gemayel. He is said to consider Leba- non a multi-ethnic society, an outlook which satisfies the Israelis who are the SLA's main supporters.