Gideon Biger

Abstract

Although Poland and Israel seem to be very far apart and different in size, history, and culture, there are a lot of similarities when it comes to the history of their international boundaries, the way the boundaries were created, those who established their boundaries, the aim of the location of the boundary lines, and the processesin which the boundaries were developed. Both countries were created by the international community (League of Nations and the United Nations) as nation states; both had large areas in the past but less landarea in modern times. Both have two periods of boundary allocations in the modern era: after the first andthe second World Wars. Both had been attacked after independence and enlarged their area by fighting the attackers. There are also some non-similarities between their boundaries. The major difference being that Poland’s boundaries have remained stable since 1951 and almost nobody has asked for changes. Israel, on the other hand, still does not have permanent stable acceptance of boundaries by its inhabitants.

Keywords: boundary making, imposed boundaries, international boundaries, nation state, world wars

Gideon Biger [bigergideon@gmail.com], Department of Geography and Human Environment Tel Aviv University Ramat Aviv, Tel Aviv: Israel