UKLFI Charitable Trust invites you to a webinar on  UTI POSSIDETIS JURIS AND ISRAEL with Natasha Hausdorff and Dr Ariel Zemach, chaired by Daniel Berke.   It will take place on Monday, 5 January 2026 at 5pm UK time  (7pm Israel, 6pm Europe, 12.00 US East Coast). Uti Possidetis Juris is a rule of international law according to which new States emerging from empires, federations, colonies and mandates inherit the borders existing at the time of independence, unless otherwise agreed. If applied to the State of Israel, its territory would include East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza Strip, subject to any agreement that may be reached in the final status negotiations contemplated by the Oslo Accords, or any other transfer of territory by Israel by cession, prescription, abandonment or acquiescence. Little attention was paid to the application of this rule to the State of Israel before Professors Abraham Bell and Eugene Kontorovich put this forward in a major article in 2016. Since then, articles by Dr Zemach and Professor David Kretzmer have disputed its application to Israel. Judge Sebutinde, Vice-President of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) considered that the rule applies to Israel in her dissenting advisory opinion in July 2024. None of the other members of the ICJ referred to the rule in their opinions in that case. In this webinar Natasha Hausdorff and Dr Ariel Zemach will debate whether the rule applies to Israel.

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More about the speakers: Natasha Hausdorff is a barrister at 6 Pump Court Chambers and a frequent speaker on International Law. She has a law degree from Oxford University, qualified as a solicitor at Skadden, and subsequently gained an LLM from Tel Aviv University, focussing on public international law and the law of armed conflict.  She clerked for Miriam Naor, President of Israel’s Supreme Court, and was a fellow at Columbia Law School’s National Security programme. Natasha is legal director of UKLFI Charitable Trust. Natasha’s work explaining legal issues relating to Israel has been recognised by the American Jewish Committee’s award for moral courage and by the honour of lighting one of the torches on Har Herzl to mark Israel’s Independence Day.   Dr Ariel Zemach is a Senior Lecturer at Ono Academic College in Israel. He holds the degrees of Doctor of the Science of Law (JSD) and Master of Laws (LLM) from Columbia University School of Law and a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He has published in several areas of international law, including the law of war, international human rights law, the international law of occupation, international boundary disputes, jus ad bellum, and unjust enrichment in international law. His work has been cited by the Supreme Court of Israel as well as by the Vice-President of the International Court of Justice, Judge Sebutinde, in her dissenting opinion in the ICJ on Legal Consequences Arising from the Policies and Practices of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. Daniel Berke is a lawyer specialising in criminal and regulatory law whose cases have frequently made national news headlines. In his voluntary life, he was a founder of the charity Free From Fear which, in the wake of the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, established and funded escape lines to save the lives of over 4,000 Afghans, mainly women, who had risked their lives to try to build a democracy. As a former diplomat for World Jewish Congress he has also worked internationally promoting matters of importance to Jewish communities. He is a founder of the Council of Military Leaders which has taken high level veterans from around the World to Israel and into Gaza to better understand the conflict and the challenges Israel faces. Daniel also serves as a director of UK Lawyers for Israel, an organisation which uses the law to challenge unfair bias against Israel and supporters of Israel.