The legitimacy of the State of Israel has been questioned by a number of countries and individuals since the Israeli Declaration of Independence in 1948. Specifically, it concerns the matter of whether the authority of Israel over the area in which it exists and/or the areas that it claims should be accepted as legitimate political authority; in the former context, which concerns the legitimacy of Israel in the area of its sovereign existence and not only its authority in the Israeli-occupied territories, the argument becomes couched in terms of its right to exist.