The Legal Foundation and Borders of Israel under International Law offers a comprehensive and systematic legal treatment of Jewish national and political rights to all of the Land of Israel. The author, Howard Grief, is the originator of the thesis that de jure sovereignty over the entire Land of Israel and Palestine was vested in the Jewish People as a result of the San Remo Resolution adopted at the San Remo Peace Conference on April 24, 1920, which divided the land of the Ottoman Empire after World War I.

 A Comment by Yuval Ne’eman

Israel’s Minister of Science and Development (1981-1984) and Minister of Energy and Infrastructure (1990-1992), and subsequently chairman of the Israel Space Agency.

Howard Grief first carried out an academic study until he found the most fitting answer. For about 400 years, the Ottoman Empire ruled over all the Balkans, the Middle East and North Africa. The struggle for the liberation of those areas began in the Balkan lands at the beginning of the nineteenth century and ended in 1913. In the First World War, the job [of liberation] was completed and Turkey was reduced to the Anatolian Peninsula. All of this was contained in the San Remo Agreement of April 1920. The fact that it was precisely at that place and time that Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and the states of the Arabian Peninsula obtained [thanks to the victory of the Principal Allied Powers over the Central Powers] the very same liberation from the Ottoman yoke strengthens the approach of Grief who presents the proof for the inclusion of Palestine [i.e., the Jewish People] in the list of beneficiaries in regard to the “settlement [or disposition] of the inheritance of the Ottoman Empire.” Grief has found the true and most effectual lever for our basic case, and I am convinced that his approach deserves to be utilized [in presenting our case to the world.]

A Comment by Dr. Yaakov Meron

Former Advisor on the Law of Arab Countries at the Ministry of Justice, Jerusalem, Israel

The Legal Foundation and Borders of Israel under International Law by Howard Grief is a forceful and erudite pleading...not only for Israeli law but also the international law that came into existence in the wake of World War I. This law, now largely forgotten or neglected, is still relevant today in regard to the status and borders of the Land of Israel.

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