The legal criteria of statehood.
I. Introduction
The question of Israel’s sovereignty and the existence of a Palestinian state is not merely a political dispute but a matter of settled international law. Israel meets all criteria for statehood under the Montevideo Convention and has been recognized by 165 of 193 UN member states as of December 2020. Its borders, rooted in the 1922 British Mandate and affirmed by the United Nations in 1949, are legally incontestable. Conversely, Palestine fails to satisfy the foundational requirements of statehood, lacks broad international recognition, and has never exercised effective sovereignty over any territory. This brief will demonstrate:
