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Is "East Jerusalem" Palestinian Territory?

(Times of Israel) Avi Bell - What country has legal sovereignty over Jerusalem? Israel's answer is well-grounded in international law: the State of Israel. The Palestine Liberation Organization's (PLO) answer is contemptuous of international law. In a lawsuit against the U.S. at the International Court of Justice in The Hague over its locating its embassy in Jerusalem, the PLO first claims (incorrectly) that it has the right to sue in the ICJ as a "state," and, second, (incorrectly) that every state can invoke the court's jurisdiction when an embassy is located in the wrong place. The PLO then claims (incorrectly) that the Vienna Convention only permits embassies to be located within the territory of the "receiving state," and (incorrectly) that none of Jerusalem is territory of the "receiving state" because all of Jerusalem is a "corpus separatum" - an internationalized territory to which no state can claim sovereignty. Experience teaches that Palestinian claims need not persuade or even be logically consistent to succeed, as long as they aim at disadvantaging Israel. The writer is a professor at Bar-Ilan University's Faculty of Law and the University of San Diego Law School.
2018-12-21 00:00:00
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