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Israel's Legitimacy Isn't Debatable under International Law
(RealClear Books & Culture) Roy K. Altman - Relatively speaking, the modern State of Israel is a rather old country. When the UN accepted it as a member state on May 11, 1949, Israel became the 59th country in the world. Today, the UN counts 193 member states, which means that Israel is older than two-thirds (134 of 193) of the world's countries. Even so, Israel is the only country whose existence is constantly being questioned and debated. The claim that Israel is "an illegitimate state" is one of the most widely accepted assertions I've heard since Hamas's Oct. 7 invasion of Israel. A nation doesn't become a state simply by declaring its statehood. Anthropologists and linguists have identified 7,000 different ethnic groups around the world today. But there are only 193 nation-states represented at the UN, which means that 98% of the world's ethnic groups don't have their own state. To become a state under international law (according to the Montevideo Convention of 1933), a nation must show it has a permanent population, a defined territory, an effective government, and the capacity to conduct foreign relations. Israel meets all four of these factors today, as it did in 1948 when the Jewish state was founded. On November 29, 1947, the UN General Assembly voted 33-13 to recognize the Land of Israel as the ancestral home of the Jewish people and to ratify their ancient claim to the land. This was once seen as uncontroversial, as both the U.S. and the Soviet Union voted to recognize Israel's foundation. Israel was unquestionably a legitimate state when it came into being in 1948. Yet the so-called "State of Palestine," which has been recognized by more than 140 countries, fails the Montevideo test. It has no defined borders. According to every poll conducted on the issue, the Palestinian people would roundly reject any proposed border that allows for the existence of a Jewish state. It also has no single effective government. The writer serves as a U.S. District Judge for the Southern District of Florida.