Is Israel Occupying the West Bank? (with Eugene Kontorovich)

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🗓️ 1 July 2024

⏱️ 66 minutes

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Summary

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.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Econ Talk, Conversations for the Curious, part of the Library of Economics and Liberty.
0:08.0	I'm your host Russ Roberts of Shalem College in Jerusalem and Stanford University's Hoover Institution. Go to Econ Talk. in to today's conversation. You'll also find our archives with every episode we've done
0:24.5	going back to 2006. Our email address is mail at econ talk.org we'd love to hear from you. Today's June 6, 2024, my guest is Professor Eugene Kondarovitch of the Scalia Law School at George Mason University.
0:45.8	His specialties are constitutional law and international law.
0:49.4	Our topic for today is what is sometimes called the West Bank, sometimes called Judean-Somaria, and sometimes
0:56.0	called the occupied territories, and sometimes called the Palestinian territories.
1:01.2	Eugene, welcome to Econ Talk. Great to be with you,
1:03.3	Geejean, welcome to Econ Talk. Great to be with you, Ross.
1:05.1	The area we're talking about, which I'm going to try to call by the somewhat neutral name,
1:09.1	the West Bank, was taken by Israel from Jordan
1:11.8	in the Six Day War in 1967.
1:14.0	It is west of the Jordan River.
1:16.0	It consists of towns where Arabs live, where Jews live.
1:20.0	There are about 450,000 Jews in the West Bank, another 250,000 live in what's called
1:27.3	East Jerusalem, which is technically a separate area, and there are about 2.7 million
1:32.4	Arabs in the West Bank.
1:34.0	Now many people describe Israel's role in the West Bank as an occupation.
1:39.0	That Israel's towns and settlements violate international law.
1:44.2	Let's start with that case.
1:46.9	I know it's not your view, but for the people who consider
1:50.0	Israel an occupying power, what is their argument? Israel and
1:55.0	try to understand what an occupation is because an occupation is
	...

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