Knesset passes San Remo Conference Day Law on preliminary vote
The conference enshrined the Balfour Declaration, recognizing the right of the Jews to a homeland in Mandatory Palestine, as part of international agreements.


In a preliminary vote today (Tuesday), the Knesset plenum approved the National Commemoration Day for the San Remo Conference Bill, 5783-2023, proposed by MK Katy Shitrit, to which a proposal by MK Dan Iluz and a group of Knesset members was attached. 27 Knesset members supported the proposal, while 8 opposed it, and it will be transferred to the Knesset Committee, which will determine which committee will discuss the proposal.
The law proposes to establish a national commemoration day for the San Remo Conference, where Britain was given responsibility after World War I for implementing the Balfour Declaration to renew the Jewish national home in the Land of Israel after millennia of Jewish political homelessness.
The law also proposed that the day be marked on the 1st of Iyar of the Hebrew calendar, the day on which the conference was held. This is to honor and recognize the historical process and its significance. This day will be marked at the President's Residence, in educational institutions, and in the IDF. A state session will also be held in the Knesset.
The explanatory preamble to the proposal state: "The decision to adopt the Balfour Declaration at the San Remo Conference, which began on the 1st of Iyar 5680, in April 1920, was one of the great achievements of the Zionist movement and a historical point of no return for the re-establishment of the Jewish state in the Land of Israel.
At this conference, the victorious nations of World War I decided on the distribution of the Ottoman Empire's assets. At the conference, the Balfour Declaration was adopted, thereby making the declaration a binding document in international law, and the Jewish people's national home that would be re-established in the Land of Israel according to it received international recognition, within broad boundaries. This decision was permanently established in international law."