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The right to exist is said to be an attribute of nations. According to an essay by the nineteenth century French philosopher Ernest Renan, a state has the right to exist when individuals are willing to sacrifice their own interests for the community it represents. Unlike self-determination, the right to exist is an attribute of states rather than of peoples. It is not a right recognized in international law. The phrase has featured prominently in the Arab–Israeli conflict since the 1950s.

The right to exist of a de facto state may be balanced against another state's right to territorial integrity. Proponents of the right to exist trace it back to the "right of existence," said to be a fundamental right of states recognized by writers on international law for hundreds of years.

Historical use

Thomas Paine used the phrase "right to exist" to refer to forms of government, arguing that representative government has a right to exist, but that hereditary government does not. In 1823, Sir Walter Scott argued for the "right to exist in the Greek people". (The Greeks were then revolting against Turkish rule.) According to Renan's "What is a Nation?" (1882), "A state has the right to exist when it gives proof of its strength by the sacrifices which demand the abdication of the individual." Existence is not a historical right, but "a daily plebiscite, just as an individual's existence is a perpetual affirmation of life," Renan said. The phrase gained enormous usage in reference to the breakup of the Ottoman Empire in 1918. "If Turkey has a right to exist – and the Powers are very prompt to assert that she has – she possesses an equally good right to defend herself against all attempts to imperil her political existence," wrote Eliakim and Robert Littell in 1903. In many cases, a nation's right to exist is not questioned, and is therefore not asserted.

There is also a state's right "to perpetuate itself". This right was invoked in legal proceedings in post-War Germany as a defence of individuals in the judiciary system accused of participating in Nazi era repressions against those who were percecuted for "anti-state" activities, real or perceived.

Abkhazia

In 2008, Patricia Flor, German ambassador to Georgia, told the Georgian Times newspaper that "Abkhaz should feel they can voice their concerns and can be open about their identity... we also say of course that the Abkhaz nation has a right to exist and to decide for themselves how they are going to live and how they want to use the Abkhaz language".

In August 2008 Russia recognised Abkhazia's independence, stating that "Using repeatedly brutal military force against the peoples, whom, according to his words, he would like to see within his State, Mikhail Saakashvili left them no other choice but to ensure their security and the right to exist through self-determination as independent States."

Basque nation

According to Basque nationalists, "Euzkadi (the name of our country in our own language) is the country of the Basques with as such right to exist independently as a nation as Poland or Ireland. The Basques are a very ancient people..."

Chechnya

The phrase, "right to exist" has also been used in reference to the right of Chechens (in the eyes of supporters) to establish a state independent from Russia.

Israel and Palestine

In 1947, the United Nations affirmed the right of an "Arab State" and a "Jewish State" to exist within Palestine in the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine. This been described by Prof.Joseph Massad as "a non-binding proposal that was never ratified or adopted by the Security Council, and therefore never acquired legal standing, as UN regulations require."The Jewish Agency, precursor to the Israeli government, agreed to the plan, but the Palestinians rejected it and attacked Israel after its May 14, 1948 unilateral declaration of independence, support from neigbouring states escalated the 1947-1948 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine into the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. The legal and territorial status of Israel and Palestine is still hotly disputed in the region and within the international community. As of 21 June 2024, 146 (75.6%) of the 193 member states of the United Nations have recognised the State of Palestine along with a total population of over 5.2 billion people, equaling 75% of the world's population. 161 of the 193 member states (83%) of the United Nations currently recognise Israel.

In June 2009 Barack Obama said "Israelis must acknowledge that just as Israel's right to exist cannot be denied, neither can Palestine's."

After the June 1967 war, Egyptian spokesman Mohammed H. el-Zayyat stated that Cairo had accepted Israel's right to exist "within mutually agreed borders" since the signing of the Egyptian-Israeli armistice

As reported by the New York Times, in 1988 Yasser Arafat declared that the Palestinians accepted United Nations Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338 which would guarantee "the right to exist in peace and security for all". In 1993, there was an official exchange of letters between Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Chairman Arafat, in which Arafat declared that "the PLO affirms that those articles of the Palestinian Covenant which deny Israel's right to exist, and the provisions of the Covenant which are inconsistent with the commitments of this letter are now inoperative and no longer valid."

In 2009 Prime Minister Ehud Olmert demanded the Palestinian Authority's acceptance of Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state, which the Palestinian Authority rejected. The Knesset plenum gave initial approval in May 2009 to a bill criminalising the public denial of Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state, with a penalty of up to a year in prison.

Criticism of the concept

According to the linguist Noam Chomsky, the term "right to exist" is unique to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict: "No state has a right to exist, and no one demands such a right....In an effort to prevent negotiations and a diplomatic settlement, the U.S. and Israel insisted on raising the barrier to something that nobody's going to accept.... not going to accept...the legitimacy of their dispossession." John V. Whitbeck argued that Israel's insistence on a right to exist forces Palestinians to provide a moral justification for their own suffering. Journalist and author Alan Hart has argued that there is no legitimacy to Israel’s claim to a “right to exist” in International law. He reasons that Israel therefore insists the Palestinians must first recognise its 'right to exist' on Palestinian territory because according to International law, neither the British Balfour declaration, nor the vitiated UN resolution of 1947 granted that legitimacy and only the dispossessed Palestinians can give Israel it: "Israel has no right to exist unless it was recognized and legitimized by those who were dispossessed of their land and their rights during the creation of the Zionist state."

Kurdistan

Representatives of the Kurdish people regularly assert their right to exist as a nation.

Northern Ireland

The constitution of the Irish free state claimed the national territory consisted of the whole of the Island, denying Northern Ireland's right to exist.

Citations

• 1791 Thomas Paine, Rights of Man: "The fact therefore must be that the individuals themselves, each in his own personal and sovereign right, entered into a contract with each other to produce a government: and this is the only mode in which governments have a right to arise, and the only principle on which they have a right to exist."
• 1823 Sir Walter Scott: "Admitting, however, this right to exist in the Greek people is a different question whether there is any right, much more any call, for the nations of Europe to interfere in their support."
• 1882 Ernest Renan, "What is a nation?": So long as this moral consciousness gives proof of its strength by the sacrifices which demand the abdication of the individual to the advantage of the community, it is legitimate and has the right to exist .
• 1916 American Institute of International Law: "Every nation has the right to exist, and to protect and to conserve its existence."
• 1922 Cemal Paşa: "In a word, the want to make the Turkish race respected in the eyes of the world and secure its right to exist side by side with the other nations in the twentieth century."
• 1933 Nazis all over Germany checking if people had voted on withdrawal from the League of Nations said "We do this because Germany's right to exist is now a question of to be or not to be."

See also

• Culture
• Diplomatic recognition
• Existence
• Nation
• Nation state
• Nationalism
• Right
• Self-defence
• Self-determination
• Sovereignty
• Special Committee on Decolonization
• Sovereign state
• Zionism
• Anti-Zionism

References

1. Lagerwall, Anne. "The Paradoxical Protection of State's Territorial Integrity by the United Nations: Law versus Power?", Paper presented at the annual meeting of the The Law and Society Association, Hilton Bonaventure, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, May 27, 2008.
2. Oppenheim, Lassa and Ronald Roxburgh, (2005) International Law, p. 192–193.
3. Paine, Thomas, "Dissertation on the First Principles of Government" (1795), The Life and Works of Thomas Paine, 5:221--25.
4. ^ Scott, Walter, "The Greek Revolution", Edinburgh Annual Register of 1823, p. 249.
5. ^ Renan, Ernest, "What is a Nation?", 1882.
6. Littell, Eliakim and Robert S. Littell, "The Reign of Terror in Macedonia", The Living Age, April–June 1903, p. 68.
7. Patricia Flor: "Abkhaz conflict is no longer frozen; The German ambassador says Abkhazs distrust the European Union," by Ketevan Khachidze, Georgian Times, 2008.08.04
9. Nationalism, Naunihal Singh, Mittal Publications, 2006, p. 111.
10. Wood, Tony. Chechnya, the Case for Independence. Page 6
11. "Prague Watchdog - Crisis in Chechnya - An empire on the verge of collapse". Watchdog.cz. Retrieved 2012-01-21.
12. Prof. Joseph Massad. "'The rights of Israel'". {{cite web}}: Text "Access date: 12 Sept 2012. "In international law, countries are recognised as existing de facto and de jure, but there is no notion that any country has a 'right to exist', let alone that other countries should recognise such a right. Nonetheless, the modification by Israel of its claim that others had to recognise its 'right to exist' to their having to recognise 'its right to exist as Jewish state' is pushed most forcefully at present, as it goes to the heart of the matter of what the Zionist project has been all about since its inception, and addresses itself to the extant discrepancy between Israel's own understanding of its rights to realise these Zionist aims and the international community's differing understanding of them. This is a crucial matter, as all these rights that Israel claims to possess, but which are not recognised internationally, translate into its rights to colonise Palestinian land, to occupy it, and to discriminate against the non-Jewish Palestinian people."" ignored (help); Text "Published: 06 May 2011" ignored (help)
13. Staff writers (28 August 2011). "Three-quarters of world recognizes Palestine". Ma'an News Agency. Retrieved 2011-08-29.
14. "Middle East | Obama on Israeli-Palestinian 'stalemate'". BBC News. 2009-06-04. Retrieved 2012-01-21.
15. PAUL LEWIS (1988-12-14). "ARAFAT, IN GENEVA, CALLS ON ISRAELIS TO JOIN IN TALKS". New York Times. Retrieved 2012-10-12. {{cite news}}: Text "December 14, 1988" ignored (help)
16. Israel-PLO Recognition: Exchange of Letters between PM Rabin and Chairman Arafat
17. Ronen, Gil, "
18. Shragai, Nadav, "Knesset okays initial bill to outlaw denial of 'Jewish state'", Haaretz, May 30, 2009.
19. Titlow, John (2005-06-01). "On the Future of Democracy, Noam Chomsky interviewed by John P. Titlow". chomsky.info. Retrieved 2008-03-20.
20. Whitbeck, John V. (February 2, 2007). "What 'Israel's right to exist' means to Palestinians". The Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved 2009-05-27.
21. The False Messiah: Zionism, the Real Enemy. Volume 1, p.34 by Alan Hart
22. Official report of debates Authors Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of Europe, Council of Europe, Council of Europe, 1994, p. 747.
23. Democracy and Human Rights in Multicultural Societies, Matthias Koenig, Paul F. A. Guchteneire, Unesco, Ashgate Publishing, 2007, p. 95.
24. Homeward Bound; KURDISTAN: In the Shadow of History. By Susan Meiselas, Random House, 1997, reviewed by Christopher Hitchens, Los Angeles Times, Dec 7, 1997.
25. [[The Four Nations: A History of the United Kingdom By Frank Welsh p358|http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=a9SqQ2YkDhAC&pg=PA358&lpg=PA358&dq=%22ireland's+right+to+exist%22&source=bl&ots=x4LLJDAb-Z&sig=_J8NXKZbf8lipTyRiB4RwACtUxE&hl=en&sa=X&ei=nTj-T-aGL6ag0QWUsch3&ved=0CFkQ6AEwCA#v=onepage&q=%22ireland's%20right%20to%20exist%22&f=false]]
26. Paine, Thomas, (1791) The Rights of Man
27. Root, Elihu, "The Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Nations Adopted by the American Institute of International Law" The American Journal of International Law, Vol. 10, No. 2, (Apr., 1916), pp. 211–221.
28. Paşa Cemal, Memories of a Turkish Statesman-1913-1919, published by George H. Doran Company, 1922, p. 200
29. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/1933/nov/13/secondworldwar.germany

Further reading

• Yaacov Lozowick: Right to Exist: A Moral Defense of Israel's Wars. Doubleday, 2003. ISBN 0-385-50905-7
• Sholom Aleichem. Why Do the Jews Need a Land of Their own?, 1898

External links

• Does Israel have a right to exist?
• Israel's Right to the Land, a presentation by U.S. Senator James Inhofe (R-Oklahoma)
• Does Israel Have a Right to Exist? by David Meir-Levi. April 6, 2005
• Israel-PLO Recognition Letter from Yasser Arafat to Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, September 9, 1993
• Abba Eban on Israel's "Right to Exist"
• Israel's Birthright and Right to Exist Compels Justice for Palestinian Peoples Catholic viewpoint
• From the father of Daniel Pearl

• Territorial disputes
• Independence movements
• International law
• National liberation movements
• Nationalism
• Philosophical concepts
• Political science terms
• Secession
• Collective rights
• Sovereignty