Legitimacy of the State of Israel

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Since 1948, a number of countries and individuals have challenged the political legitimacy of the state of Israel and/or its occupation of Arab territories. Over the course of the Arab–Israeli conflict, the country's authority has been questioned on a number of fronts. Critics of Israel may be motivated by their opposition to the country's right to exist or, since the 1967 Arab–Israeli War, their disapproval of the established power structure within the Israeli-occupied territories. Increasingly, Israel has been accused of apartheid. Israel regards such criticism as an attempt to de-legitimize it.^[1]

On 11 May 1949, Israel was admitted to the United Nations (UN) as a full member state.^[2][3] It also has bilateral ties with each of the Permanent Five. As of 2022^[update], 28 of the 193 UN member states do not recognize Israeli sovereignty; the Muslim world accounts for 25 of the 28 non-recognizing countries, with Cuba, North Korea, and Venezuela representing the remainder. Most of the governments opposed to Israel have cited the ongoing Israeli–Palestinian conflict as the basis for their stance.

In the early 1990s, Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestinian political leader Yasser Arafat exchanged the Letters of Mutual Recognition. Pursuant to this correspondence, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) formally recognized Israel's right to exist as a sovereign state while Israel formally recognized the PLO as a legitimate entity representing the Palestinian people. This development set the stage for negotiations towards achieving a two-state solution (i.e., Israel alongside the State of Palestine) through what would become known as the Oslo Accords, as part of the Israeli–Palestinian peace process.