Decisions of international and national tribunals
The U.S. State Department
Digest of International Law says that the terms of the
Treaty of Lausanne provided for the application of the principles of state succession to the
"A" Mandates. The
Treaty of Versailles (1920) provisionally recognized the former Ottoman communities as independent nations. It also required Germany to recognize the disposition of the former Ottoman territories and to recognize the new states laid down within their boundaries. The
Treaty of Lausanne required the newly created states that acquired the territory to pay annuities on the Ottoman public debt, and to assume responsibility for the administration of concessions that had been granted by the Ottomans. A dispute regarding the status of the territories was settled by an Arbitrator appointed by the Council of the
League of Nations. It was decided that Palestine and Transjordan were newly created states according to the terms of the applicable post-war treaties. In its
Judgment No. 5, The Mavrommatis Palestine Concessions, the
Permanent Court of International Justice also decided that Palestine was responsible as the successor state for concessions granted by Ottoman authorities. The Courts of Palestine and Great Britain decided that title to the properties shown on the Ottoman Civil list had been ceded to the government of Palestine as an allied successor state.
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For
John Quigley, Palestine's existence as a state predates the 1988 declaration. Tracing Palestine's status as an international entity back to the collapse of the
Ottoman Empire after
World War I, he recalls that the
Palestine Mandate (1918–1948), an arrangement made under Article 22 of the Covenant of the
League of Nations, held as its "ultimate objective", the "
self-determination and independence of the people concerned." He says that in explicitly referring to the Covenant, the 1988 declaration was reaffirming an existing Palestinian statehood.
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