The Israel-Palestine difference, territory and defense
What
would happen if another party with no part in the original Israel-Palestine
difference decided to invade the disputed territories? In the hypothetical
scenario a third party such as Iran, the United States, the United Kingdom or Russia
decided to invade these territories, who would defend them?
The
ways in which the situation may develop are as follows:
- both Israel and Palestine may remain neutral; consequently, the new agent would take over the territories if the inhabitants were unable to defend themselves;
- one, either Israel or Palestine, may respond to the invasion and defend the territories;
- both Israel and Palestine may respond to the invasion and defend jointly or independently the islands.
At
the same time, States have the right and are obliged to defend their own
interests and their population. Consequently, any act of defense is fair and
just as long as it is a result of an illegitimate threat or attack. However, in
a TERRITORIAL DISPUTE, it seems difficult to determine the one who could/should
be defending the disputed territory in the event of an attack on what appears
to be a common interest for all the involved parties.
In
addition to the way in which the parties would defend the third territory, there
are two other crucial elements that need to be agreed, even if joint defence
was the case:
- the extent to which the burden can be made proportionate, with those with more of the appropriate resources taking the larger share (if they can be trusted not to turn their forces against the other two parties);
- and the extent to which one considers what combination of contributions will be the most efficient, using, e.g., both the local knowledge of the people in the territory, and the equipment best adapted to defending it.
Indeed,
if they take on sovereignty, they must take on the obligation to defend.
However, how would Israel and Palestine share the defence? The EGALITARIAN
SHARED SOVEREIGNTY addresses the three elements that seem to be crucial in
order to have shared defence: a) Resources; b) Training and opportunities; c)
Safety of the other two parties (how to avoid misuse of power). What does it
mean if the agents have different level of development? The differences in the
case of defence are numerous. For example, geostrategic location; economic
resources; level of military development; training and facilities; number of
troops; etc. In the case of Israel and Palestine, the differences are
self-evident. A combination of contributions can make these differences work together
in an efficient form.
In
the Israel-Palestine difference, it will be highly probable that the parties
have a different level of development in terms of their respective defence
systems (input-to-output ratio principle).
Then,
the egalitarian shared sovereignty can be fulfilled in two ways: a) following
the most efficient combination in terms of contribution (principle of
efficiency)—for example, using both the local knowledge of the people in the
territory (Palestinians), the geostrategic location (Israel and Palestine), and
the equipment, resources and any means best adapted to defending it (Israel);
b) the agent with the better comparative situation—in whatever aspect—may
contribute in developing the other parties or granting them exclusive privileges
(equilibrium proviso)—for example, Israel could train Palestinian troops in
exchange for the use of certain locations.
It
is clear that the egalitarian shared sovereignty aims only to achieve the same
level of opportunity and development for all the involved parties so they are
able to defend the third territory (not the territory that is already part of
the sovereign States). Thus, even if there were variations in the future in
terms of wealth status and defence development among the involved participants,
the reciprocal obligation would always be the same for all the agents. In other
words, to combine in order to to produce the most efficient result.
NOTE:
This post is based on Jorge Emilio Núñez, “Territorial Disputes and State
Sovereignty: International Law and Politics,” London and New York: Routledge,
Taylor and Francis Group, 2020 (forthcoming)
Previous
published research monograph about territorial disputes and sovereignty by the
author, Jorge Emilio Núñez, “Sovereignty Conflicts and International Law and
Politics: A Distributive Justice Issue,” London and New York: Routledge, Taylor
and Francis Group, 2017.
NEXT
POST: Government and law in the context of the Israel-Palestine difference.
Monday 27th January 2020
Dr Jorge Emilio Núñez
Twitter: @London1701
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