Re: International law support for Israel's boundaries

On 2025-06-01 1:19 PM, Adam H. Kerman wrote:

I have very limited understanding of the status of Israel's boundaries
in international law. I've done basic reading; I know how and when
specific boundaries were drawn. But their legal status?

To follow on with a related point, quite a number of countries recognize a state called Palestine, although mostly not the main Western states. (That may be on the verge of changing with threats by countries like the UK and Canada since Oct 7 to recognize Palestine.) But what would the boundaries of that Palestine be? Would it be Gaza alone? Gaza plus the West Bank as currently delimited by Israel? Or the Palestine that Palestinians themselves actually want, best described as "from the river to the sea" or "the one state solution" which envisions the Jews all being dead or deported?

 There are two ways an international boundary gets international
recognition at the time of declaration of a state, either by bi-lateral
or multi-lateral treaty in which the boundary is demarcated, or by
international custom.
 In the surrender of the Ottoman Empire (or whatever country it was) in
WWI, Turkey no longer claimed control of the Middle East and French and
British Mandates carved up massive amounts of territory.
 Legally, the Mandate was not colonization nor occupation. It was
administration intended to lead to new states. But the Mandate --
created as part of the multi-lateral peace treaty ending World War One
-- has international legal recognition long predating the United
Nations.
 The British drew a variety of borders for administrative purposes.
Pre-WWI, when there were various powers occupying Egypt over the
centuries, Turkey, France during the Napoleonic wars, and the British,
the line was drawn in 1906 between Britain and the Ottoman Empire
through unpopulated desert that wouldn't be disputed. Egypt wasn't a
country but had plenty of autonomy.
 This boundary became one of the boundaries of Mandatory Palestine. The
boundary between Israel and Jordan was based on the 1920 demarcation of
the eastern boundary of mandatory Palestine, although Transjordan was
added to the British, er, mandate/occupation/administration in 1921 but
administered separately.
 So various peace treaties Israel is party to incorporate these British
drawn administrative lines by reference as international boundaries.
 This is international boundary BY CUSTOM, not by treaty, for it is
CUSTOMARY to recognize the boundaries of a state at time of declaration
as having been created within existing territory without a treaty to the
contrary.
 Israel was the only state to come out of Mandatory Palestine. The
surrounding Arab powers didn't recognize Israel and there were a series
of wars between 1948 and 1951. Significantly, no Arab state of Palestine
formed (it declared its existence one day before the first invasion
occurred in the first war in 1948).
 This is important for the international status of Israel's
administration of territory as an occupier.
 It was explained that the international law of occupation has to do with
whether a sovereign lost territory in war and may be expected to regain
the territory in peace negotiations leading to a treaty.
 But here, there is no former sovereign. The British ended the Mandate and
withdrew before states were formed. Without a former sovereign, the
internal treaty on occupation doesn't apply.
 Here's a lecture by Natasha Hausdorff explaining Israel's position under
international law from a conference.
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91iD2R_nhxo

--
Rhino