Letter to the Editor: Israelis are legal settlers of ‘Palestine territories’

Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories (the West bank and the Gaza Strip) since 1967 is the subject of frequent debate in your newspaper, but much of that input is driven by emotion rather than detailed, factual knowledge. May I, therefore, be permitted to explain the status of the territory issue under international law.

Israel’s borders are defined in a number of international treaties, the most relevant of which are the League of Nations Treaty of July 24, 1922 (includes the San Remo Resolution April 25th, 1920), and the Treaty of Sevres, Section VI1, Article 95, which was inserted into the Mandate for Palestine and further ratified and endorsed by the Treaty of Lausanne, on July 24, 1923. The USA, not being a member nation of the League of Nations at the time, codified all this into US law in the Anglo American Convention of December 3, 1924.