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Source: https://jcpa.org/the-state-of-israels-legal-right-to-judea-and-samaria/
Israel's Legal Right to Judea and Samaria
(Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs) Lt.-Col. (res.) Maurice Hirsch - Israel's legal and historical rights to Judea and Samaria are grounded in international decisions made after World War I. The 1920 San Remo Conference and the 1922 League of Nations Mandate for Palestine recognized the Jewish people's historical connection to the land and charged Britain with facilitating the establishment of a Jewish national home west of the Jordan River. Under the legal principle of uti possidetis juris, Israel inherited these Mandate borders at independence in 1948, which included Gaza, Judea, Samaria, and Jerusalem. The 1947 UN Partition Plan was a nonbinding recommendation rejected by Arab states, and subsequent armistice lines drawn in 1949 were explicitly not intended to serve as borders. Egypt controlled Gaza and Jordan controlled Judea, Samaria, and east Jerusalem until 1967, but these occupations did not alter sovereignty. Article 80 of the UN Charter further preserved the validity of Mandate-based rights. Israel has already extended its domestic law to territories such as Jerusalem (1967) and the Golan Heights (1981), establishing precedents for applying law to additional areas. While political and diplomatic considerations are significant, the legal foundation for extending Israeli law to Judea and Samaria rests on longstanding international recognition of Jewish sovereignty in the region. The writer, former director of the Military Prosecution in Judea and Samaria, is director of the Palestinian Authority Accountability Initiative at the Jerusalem Center.