and this form of denying Palestinian self-determination has been rampant since
Israel’s creation. As for the international community, it continues to express its
commitment to Palestinian self-determination, as recently reaffirmed in United
Nations General Assembly Resolution 75/172 on 16 December 2020,6 but it has
limited its understanding of Palestinian self-determination to one confined to a
two-state conception and thus exercised on less than 22 percent of Mandatory
Palestine, that is the West Bank, east Jerusalem, and Gaza Strip, and only inclusive
of Palestinians living in those areas. However, this formulation can neither be
equated to self-determination nor can it be realizable considering that central
to the Zionist-Israeli enterprise is the denial of Palestinian self-determination,
indicating that the two cannot coincide.
Through considering the substantive legal contents of the Palestinian people’s
right to self-determination, the following research will demonstrate that: (1) the
Palestinian right to self-determination necessarily encompasses all Palestinians,
wherever they are, (2) the territory upon which this right is exercised must be
the whole of Mandatory Palestine, and (3) the fulfillment of the inalienable right
of return and decolonization will enable the complete realization of Palestinian
self-determination.
6
UNGA, The Right of the Palestinian People to Self-Determination, A/RES/75/172, 28 December
2020, available at: https://www.un.org/unispal/document/the-right-of-the-palestinian-people-to-selfdetermination-ga-resolution-a-res-75-172/ [accessed 1 November 2021].
3