The year 2008 marks sixty years since the establishment of the State of Israel. Yet, today, notwithstanding a 1922 League of Nations Mandate affirming the Jewish people’s right to reconstitute itself in its ancient homeland, Israel’s fifty-nine year membership in the United Nations and its extraordinary achievements, the very legitimacy of a Jewish state remains an issue of public debate.
This conference, held on March 26, 2008, engaged in a critical examination of the debate on Israel’s legitimacy, and the rights of a Jewish nation-state and Jewish self-determination among other nation-states of the world and other nations’ claims to self-determination.
Contents
The Challenge to Israel’s Legitimacy – Amb. Dore Gold
Israel at 60 – Dr. Lars Hansel
BBC Impartiality? – Trevor Asserson
Selective Human Rights: NGOs and the Delegitimization of Israel – Prof. Gerald Steinberg
Jewish Anti-Zionists and the Delegitimization of Israel – Dr. Emanuele Ottolenghi
Jerusalem: A Microcosm of Jewish Rights – Sir Martin Gilbert
The Rights of Jews to Statehood – Prof. Ruth Gavison
The Evolution of Israel’s Boundaries – Amb. Yehuda Z. Blum
Israel – An “Illegitimate” State? – Dr. Abraham Bell
Universal Jurisdiction – Adv. Irit Kohn
Laundering Delegitimization – MP Prof. Irwin Cotler
International Legitimacy and International Law – Daniel Taub
