Self-Determination in Perspective: Palestinian Claims to Statehood and the Relativity of the Right to Self-Determination

Abstract

“Self-determination” is not a mere phrase. It is an imperative principle of action, which statesmen will henceforth ignore at their peril.U.S. President Woodrow Wilson, 11 February 1918, reprinted in R.S. Baker and W.E. Dodd, eds., War and Peace, Presidential Messages, Addresses and Public Papers, vol. 1 (1927) 182.The phrase is simply loaded with dynamite. It will raise hopes which can never be realized. It will, I fear, cost thousands of lives. In the end it is bound to be discredited, to be called the dream of an idealist who failed to realize its danger until too late to check those who attempt to put the principle in force. What a calamity that the phrase was ever uttered. What misery it will cause!Robert Lansing, U.S. Secretary of State, 30 December 1918, reprinted in Robert Lansing, The Peace Negotiations — A Personal Narrative (1921) 97.