Israel’s Real Borders

Peloni: Prof. of Law Eugene Kontorovich is one of the world’s preeminent experts on universal jurisdiction and maritime piracy, as well as international law and the Israel-Arab conflict.  Below, Kontorovich discusses Israel’s real borders and exposes many false narratives which defy reality and truth about those borders.

Key points 

• Israel was not created by the UN: The United Nations lacks authority to create states; its 1947 partition plan was both non-binding and rejected by Arab states.
• The Holocaust did not create Israel: The reconstitution of the Jewish state was accepted and planned decades before the Shoah; the Holocaust actually weakened Jewish capacity to establish it.
• The League of Nations Mandate for Palestine is the key legal foundation: It was a binding international instrument recognizing the Jewish national home.

• Borders follow prior administrative boundaries: Under the doctrine of uti possidetis juris, new states inherit borders of previous top-level administrative unit.
• Israel legally inherited Mandatory Palestine’s territory: This included all land west of the Jordan River at the time of independence.
• Arab occupation did not create sovereignty: Jordanian and Egyptian control of the West Bank and Gaza (1948–1967) had no legal effect on sovereignty.
• Israel became a state through self-declaration and defense: Effective governance and survival against invasion meet international law criteria for statehood.
• Israel is held to no special legal standard: The same international law rules applied to Israel apply to every modern state worldwide.