The West Bank was taken by Israel from Jordan in the Six-Day War in 1967. It consists of towns where both Arabs and Jews live, with approximately 450,000 Jews residing in the West Bank and 250,000 in East Jerusalem. Additionally, there are about 2.7 million Arabs living in the West Bank. Israel's presence in the West Bank is often described as an occupation.
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.