An element of the Narrative, as we have just seen, is that Jewry was regarded as holding a collective right to territorial entitlement in Palestine. The 1948 declaration of statehood claimed that this right was “re-affirmed” in the Palestine mandate document. The declaration recited that the 1897 Zionist congress called for the “the right of the Jewish people to national rebirth in its own country. This right,” the 1948 declaration continued, “was recognized in the Balfour Declaration of 2 November 1917, and reaffirmed in the Mandate of the League of Nations, which, in particular, gave international sanction to the historic connection between the Jewish people and Eretz-Israel and to the right of the Jewish people to rebuild its National Home.”

The 1948 declaration's reference to the mandate document as a document “of the League of Nations” was questionable since, as we have seen, the document was written by the British Government, not by the League of Nations. The reference to “the Jewish people” held significance, because only a “people” has a right to self-determination. Further, even a group that is a “people” may not necessarily be entitled to exercise self-determination in a particular territory. As was the case in Palestine, another people may have their own claim. The claim of a right for the Jewish people was particularly problematic since they, in the main, did not inhabit the territory of Palestine. A people making a claim to a territory typically inhabits that territory. This circumstance was lacking for Jewry. One early analyst of the Palestine mandate referred to Jews as “an absent people.”

As a minimum, in any event, the collectivity making a territorial claim must be a “people.” Ruth Gavison, professor in international law at the Hebrew University, explained in a book published by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, “The claim that Jews are not a nation in the context of our concerns comes from the fact that international law recognizes the right of peoples to self-determination, while only recognizing cultural and religious rights for other cultural groups, with a special sensitivity to the claims of national minorities. If Jews are only a religion, basic elements of their claim to a right to selfdetermination in Zion may be undermined.”