Geronimo!

Hypothetical Japanese paratroopers who landed in Tel Aviv in May 1948 could have legitimately claimed sovereign rights in Palestine, Yehuda Z. Blum, professor of international law at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, told a group of approximately 50 people last night in Science Center B.

Blum used this outlandish scenario to illustrate the legal implications of Arab denial of Israeli sovereignty over what the United Nations defined as Palestine at the time of its abortive partition plan.

In a lecture and question-and-answer period that followed, Blum explained the tangled legal status of territories contested in the Mideast conflict.

Using concepts such as "sleeping" or "suspended" sovereignty and optionally exercised jurisdiction, Blum argued that for the last ten years Israel should have emphasized its legal sovereignty in the West Bank. In this way, he said, any negotiated adjustment of borders is recognized as a substantive concession rather than as a termination of occupied foreign territory.