Myth 4 – Jews Occupy Palestinian Land : From Blog Posts to Book 

The purpose of “Myth 4 – Jews Occupy Palestinian Land” and these blog posts is to combine them into a published book entitled Safe Schools for Jewish Students: An Educator’s Guide to Preventing Antisemitism and Strengthening Belonging.

Go here for the full Table of Contents.

Chapter 3 – Myth 4: Jews Occupy Palestinian Land

Myth 4: Jews are Occupying and Colonizing Palestinian land

The most common reasons for a military occupation are:

Geopolitical dominance – This is a long-term goal and can include annexation of the land and establishing colonies, often done by empires.

Resource acquisition – This can be short-term or long-term, lasting for as long as the resources improve the economy of the invaders.

Security and threat elimination – This is often short-term. Once there is no longer a legitimate threat, the occupying forces can retreat back to their country of origin. This reason is the most reasonable of the bunch.

For Jews to be occupiers, they must have at least one of these three goals: 

• Annexing the land, 
• Exploiting the resources of the land before returning to their country, or 
• Securing or eliminating any threats to themselves before returning to their country.

More pertinent, Article 42 of The Hague Regulations of 1907 defines occupation as follows: “Territory is considered occupied when it is actually placed under the authority of the hostile army. The occupation extends only to the territory where such authority has been established and can be exercised.”

For example, when Nazi Germany entered the Netherlands without the consent of the Dutch government, the Netherlands was occupied by Germany. 

In the case of occupation, as counter-intuitive as this may be, even if the aggressor is overtaken by the country that is defending itself, the land taken away from the aggressor is still considered occupied territory, unless the citizens in the territory prefer to be under the rule of the new government and the U.N. Security Council allows it.

So Egypt coordinated an attack against Israel in 1967, and when Israel took the Sinai Peninsula for strategic protection from Egypt’s attacks, Israel was officially occupying the Sinai desert. In 1979, Egypt and Israel signed a peace treaty, and Israel returned the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt.

Furthermore, peace treaties override international law, so had Egypt agreed to peace, letting Israel keep the Sinai Peninsula, the Sinai would no longer have been considered occupied, and would have become a part of Israel.

Did Israel Become a State Illegally?

In order for a territory to become a state, the following requirements need to be met:

• The territory is defined: The territory has its borders generally defined, though disputes over the boundaries do not prevent statehood.
• The territory is populated: A stable population is settled in the region.
• Other states support its creation: Acceptance by other states is a critical factor of demonstrating the new state’s ability to enter into diplomatic and productive relations with other states, like trade agreements.
• A government exists: The population and territory have a governing body in place.

Defined Territory and State Support – In 1947, the British Mandate of Palestine included Gaza, the West Bank, and everything in between. Because of the violence against the British in the region, Britain had the United Nations take over the decision on what to do with the land.

The U.N. proposed a partition plan in November of 1947, dividing the land between the Jewish inhabitants and the Arab inhabitants. The Jewish leaders reluctantly agreed, and the Arab leaders refused. However, the majority of the U.N. supported the partition plan, so that fulfilled the state support requirement for creation.

Populated Territory – By late 1947, a third of the population in the British Mandate of Palestine was Jewish, so that fulfilled the requirement of a population inhabiting the U.N.’s proposed region for a Jewish state.  

Governing Body – In 1948, the People’s Administration (Minhelet HaAm), was the executive branch of the People’s Council (Moetzet HaAm), the temporary legislature. On May 14, 1948, The People’s Council became the Provisional State Council, and the People’s Administration became the Provisional Government.

The provisional government ran until the first elections of the Knesset, the Israeli Parliament, were held in January 1949. Of those elected, three were Arab Israelis.

Since the State of Israel had a) roughly defined borders, b) a stable population, c) support by most of the League of Nations, and d) a governing body, the State of Israel was formed legally.

What About the Borders?

In May 1948, Israel declared itself a State while its boundaries were still unclear. Israel became an official state with sovereign statehood because it had a permanent population, a defined territory albeit without clear borders, a government, and the ability to trade with other states.

On the other hand, the Arab region of the partition plan did not have a government and did not declare themselves a state. Those regions were terra nulius, “nobody’s land,” which, according to international law, may be obtained and made sovereign by neighboring countries if occupied by those countries. 

Default Borders of New States – Uti possidetis juris is an aspect of international law that says new states inherit the borders of their predecessors.

For example, the borders of decolonized territories in Latin America were based on the previous administrative divisions. Similarly, when the former Soviet Union was divided into countries, their administrative borders became the international borders. Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, Moldova, Ukraine, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia are examples of countries formed with borders designated by the former administrative divisions following the international law of uti possidetis juris.

The administrative borders of the British Mandate of Palestine in 1948 was what we currently call Israel plus Gaza plus the West Bank. All of that land, according to international law, is by default the sovereign land of Israel.

The War of 1948 – In 1948, Jordan, Egypt, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Saudi Arabia attacked Israel, and the war concluded with Armistice agreements, including a clear border between Lebanon and Israel, and a clear border between Syria and Israel. However, Jordan and Egypt made conditional agreements with Israel: The borders surrounding the West Bank and Gaza were “without prejudice to future territorial settlements or boundary lines or claims of either Party related thereto.” 

Jordan occupied the West Bank, including the Old City of Jerusalem, and Egypt occupied Gaza. Jordan formally annexed the West Bank in 1950. Since Gaza and most of the West Bank were terra nulius, “nobody’s land,” Egypt and Jordan would have had legal claim to make those occupied lands a part of their own, though still going against the default international law of uti possidetis juris. During those years of occupation, neither Egypt nor Jordan offered to create a Palestinian state, nor was there any demand to create one.

The War of 1967 – In 1967, when Egypt, Jordan, and Syria placed simultaneous posts of tanks at Israel’s border, the provocation caused Israel to defend itself from the approaching attack. At the end of the war, Israel had control over Gaza, the entire Sinai Peninsula, the Golan Heights, and the West Bank.  

Resolution 242 – The UN Security Council Resolution 242 of 1967 declared:

1. Affirms that the fulfillment of Charter principles requires the establishment of a just and lasting peace in the Middle East which should include the application of both the following principles:

(i) Withdrawal of Israeli armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict;

(ii) Termination of all claims or states of belligerency and respect for and acknowledgement of the sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence of every State in the area and their right to live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force.

Since both principles were required, the resolution kept the door open for Israel to have any boundaries necessary for its right to live in peace within secure borders free from danger.

The Yom Kippur War – In 1973, Egypt and Syria launched a surprise attack during the holiest Jewish holiday, a day of fasting. Israel’s borders adjusted slightly after the 1973 war and the Security Council restated Resolution 242 with stronger, clearer language in their Resolution 338 (1973).  

Resolutions of Peace – With these resolutions, Israel made peace with Egypt in 1979, offering the Sinai Peninsula and Gaza, and made peace with Jordan in 1994.

Egypt accepted the Sinai Peninsula but turned down Gaza, leaving it for Israel. Defaulting to uti possidetis juris, Gaza became a part of Israel’s sovereign territory.

There was no land exchange between Israel and Jordan; Jordan had renounced all claims to the West Bank in 1988 because Yassir Arafat’s Palestinian Liberation Organization’s fight for independence and the Palestinian aggression against Israel, as demonstrated by the First Intifadah, was interfering with Jordan’s ability to make peace with Israel. Again, defaulting to uti possidetis juris, the West Bank became a part of Israel’s sovereign territory.

The resolutions also were the basis of negotiating a peaceful resolution between Israel and the PLO starting in 1993 for a two-state solution. The Security Council Resolution 1397 in 2002 stated that the Security Council “affirm[ed] a vision of a region where two States, Israel and Palestine, live side by side within secure and recognized borders.” 

The Extraction of 2005 – To improve the security of Israelis, Israel gave the Palestinians jurisdiction control over Gaza in 2005. This involved Israel destroying the synagogues, forcing Israeli citizens to leave, and removing all Jewish graves from the land.

A narrow majority of the Palestinians voted for Hamas to govern them in Gaza. Countries like Iran and Qatar funded Hamas to become the well-armed terrorist organization they became, and Hamas and other Palestinian combatants waged war on October 7, 2023.

The war they started resulted in a devastating loss of life, mostly Palestinians. As of this writing, July, 2026, it is unclear who will be governing Gaza. Currently, Egypt and Israel seem uninterested in controlling the land. Meanwhile, Hamas has publicly executed Palestinians deemed traitors without any judicial due process. 

Ultimately, Israel’s borders for Gaza are not yet completely defined.

Israel’s Borders

• Egypt: Clearly defined borders
• Jordan: Clearly defined borders
• Golan Heights: Though the Golan Heights was a part of ancient Israel according to the Bible, the archeological findings of some twenty-five synagogues, and the writings of Flavius Josephus, the land became a part of Syria and when Syria attacked Israel in 1967, Israel took control of the Golan Heights. The region was effectively annexed by Israel in 1981, and recognized by the U.S. as a part of sovereign Israel in 2019.
• The West Bank: The West Bank is a mosaic of lines and dots that also require a peace agreement to create clearly defined borders. Claims of Israel possibly annexing the West Bank is a non-sequitur because a state cannot annex its own sovereign territory.
• Gaza: As of this writing, there are no clear borders.

Determining Statehood and its Borders

Israel is a defined populated region with a governing body and international recognition. Israel is a state.

To determine where the borders of the state is, determine which peace treaties are in place. Have the peace treaties been breached? If so, look to the borders initially declared by the governing body. If a defensive war required to protect the state resulted in obtaining terra nulius (nobody’s land), then the default border designation is bound by uti possidetis juris.

In this case, Israel has peace treaties with several countries, including ones at its borders. However, in the case of Gaza, Israel Unilateral Disengagement Plan of 2005 gave Gazan Palestinians the opportunity to self-govern, opening the door to demonstrate peaceful Palestinian sovereignty. The Gazans voted for Hamas leadership, Hamas initiated several attacks against Israel, reverting the land to a part of Israeli sovereign territory by the customary international law of uti possidetis juris.

Israel is not and never has been an occupation of the land.

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Author Biography of Safe Schools for Jewish Students

Ezra Barany, son of a Bronx father and a Dutch mother from Nazi-occupied Netherlands, loves riveting readers with Jewish thrillers. His first two books in The Torah Codes series were award-winning international bestsellers. In his free time, he has eye-opening discussions on the art of writing novels with his wife and book coach Beth Barany. A high school physics teacher, Ezra lives in Oakland with his beloved wife and two cats working on the next book. Ezra, not the cats.