Legal Relevance of United Nations General Assembly's Partition Proposal

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The United Nations General Assembly's partition proposal for Palestine is often a starting point for discussions, but legally speaking, it holds no relevance as the UN has no authority to create countries or borders. The 1947 resolution was a recommendation to Britain, the mandatory power, and was deemed unworkable by the British. The proposal divided mandatory Palestine into six triangles, allocated three to Arabs and three to Jews, with Jerusalem designated as an international city. Despite its flaws, the Jews accepted the proposal as the alternative was no Jewish state.

To international law expert Eugene Kontorovich of George Mason University, all the arguments that make Israel out to be an occupying force collapse under the weight of a single, simple fact: A country cannot occupy territory to which it has a legal claim. Listen as Kontorovich speaks with EconTalk's Russ Roberts about the legal issues surrounding occupation as well as the moral issues of Israel's treatment of the Palestinians. They also discuss the crazy-quilt legal environment of jurisdiction in the West Bank in the aftermath of the Oslo Accords of 1993. Finally, they explore the likely outcomes of current proposals for a Palestinian state in the West Bank.