International Law permits occupation of the belligerent territory acquired in the defensive war. In contrast to an “expropriation,” in which ownership of the land is transferred to the State, “military seizure” leaves the official ownership of the land under the name of its original owners, but transfers total control of the land, for a designated period of time, to the military. [99], In 2003, The Non-Aligned Movement declared Israeli settlements as illegal, stating, "the main danger to the realization of the national rights of the Palestinian people and the achievement of a peaceful solution is the settler colonialism that has been carried out in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, since 1967, through land confiscation, settlement building and the transfer of Israeli nationals to the Occupied Territory. [90], Israel also argues that some of the settlements are built in areas where Jewish settlements existed before the 1948 Arab-Israeli War and violence prior, when many West Bank settlements were destroyed and the residents massacred or expelled, such as Hartuv, Kfar Etzion, Hebron, and the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem, and therefore the application of the Geneva Convention is an entirely different issue.[91][92]. Abba Eban told George Ball Israel was willing to return "most of the West Bank" to Jordan. Among the registered private lands in the West Bank, there is a special category of Absentee Land, belonging to people who fled the West Bank in 1967. The outposts do not have official government recognition, although many of them were established with governmental assistance. A practice known as “Circular Deals”, involving government bodies and private entrepreneurs, came into shape in the early 1980s, probably in order to avoid the difficulties of the registration process, which requires revealing the name of the seller and involves an extensive inspection for forgery and frauds. The Court cited the Geneva Convention's travaux préparatoires, which recommended that the conventions be applicable to any armed conflict "whether [it] is or is not recognized as a state of war by the parties" and "in cases of occupation of territories in the absence of any state of war" as confirmation that the drafters of the article had no intention of restricting the scope of its application. This policy brief focuses on the territories Israel occupied in 1967 – the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip, and the Golan Heights – and more specifically on the Israeli settlements and outposts that were built in the occupied Palestinian territory (OPT). Additionally, as the international community considered the status of Jerusalem to be unresolved, even after 1967, and did not deem any part of the city to be Israeli territory, including that part held since 1948, UNSC 242 did not settle territorial issues between Israel and Palestine left unresolved by the 1949 Armistice Agreements. ", 'the U.S. government does not recognize all of Jerusalem as part of The second precondition regarding title to the land cites the precedent established in the Elon Moreh case. [95] Yehuda Blum further argued in 1971 that United Nations Security Council Resolution 242 calls for "secure and recognized boundaries", and that neither the 1949 armistice demarcation lines, nor the 1967 cease-fire lines have proved themselves secure. [11][12] UN Security Council Resolution 446 refers to the Fourth Geneva Convention as the applicable international legal instrument, and calls upon Israel to desist from transferring its own population into the territories or changing their demographic makeup. At the monthly meeting of the United Nations Security Council, just two days after the U.S. announcement, the 14 other Council members strongly opposed the U.S. position and before the meeting began, Britain, France, Germany, Belgium and Poland reiterated in a joint statement that "all settlement activity is illegal under international law." [137] In practice, Israel does not accept that the Fourth Geneva Convention applies de jure, but has stated that on humanitarian issues it will govern itself de facto by its provisions, without specifying which these are. As there had been no internationally recognized legal sovereign in either the West Bank or Gaza before the 1967 Six Day War, they cannot be considered to have become "occupied territory" when control passed into the hands of Israel. Cassese concludes that "at least a tacit manifestation of consent through conclusive acts would have been necessary", whereas such relevant acts as did take place confirmed that no such consent to the transfer of sovereignty was given. [136] According to John B. Quigley, as signatory to the Geneva Convention, Israel's position that it does not apply to the West Bank and Gaza Strip because before its occupation those territories were not governed by a sovereign power, and therefore constitutes a different case, has been universally rejected "because the Convention also states that it applies 'in all circumstances' (Article 1), and 'to all cases of declared war or of any other armed conflict' (Article 2)". 22, 1979), adopted by 12 votes to none, with 3 abstentions (Norway, the United Kingdom and the United States), reaffirmed the applicability of the fourth Geneva Convention, as well as opposing the establishment of Israeli settlements in the occupied territories. The provisions of the law to implement a move of the embassy can be deferred or blocked by the exercise of an Executive waiver. [48][49], In 2004, an advisory opinion by the primary judicial organ of the UN, the International Court of Justice, also found the settlements to be illegal under international law. Public lands' possession cannot be alienated, nor its basic character transformed.[33][34]. It should be marked that Israel may be following the Ottoman law code to the letter, but it is doing it in an improper and discriminatory manner. [150][z], In two cases decided shortly after independence (the Shimshon and Stampfer cases) the Israeli Supreme Court held that the fundamental rules of international law accepted as binding by all "civilized" nations were incorporated in the domestic legal system of Israel. It has not changed. [101] The human rights groups Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and B'Tselem have reiterated their view that Israeli settlements as violations of international law.[102][103][v]. To re-iterate, every international organization involved in this affair has categorized this as false and has used it as leverage to safely call the Israeli settlements illegal. [32], In 1978 and 1979 the Israeli Supreme court, prompted by the new government policies, ruled on two important cases that set out the requirements for Israeli settlement legality under international law. Before 1917 it belonged to the Ottoman Empire and so on. [122] His view was presented by Moshe Dayan in a speech before the 32nd session of the United Nations General Assembly in 1977. [n] In November 2019, the United States said that it no longer views them as inconsistent with international law. This page was last edited on 10 April 2021, at 02:31. Since the Oslo Accords leave the issue of settlements to be negotiated later, proponents of this view argue that the Palestinians accepted the temporary presence of Israeli settlements pending further negotiation, and that there is no basis for declaring them illegal. Numerous UN resolutions and prevailing international opinion hold that Israeli settlements in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights are a violation of international law, including UN Security Council resolutions in 1979, 1980,[8][9][10] and 2016. Recall the language of Article 49: "The Occupying Power shall not transfer its own civilians into the territory it occupies" (emphasis added). [64] The Hansell Memorandum found that "[w]hile Israel may undertake, in the occupied territories, actions necessary to meet its military needs and to provide for orderly government during the occupation, for the reasons indicated above the establishment of the civilian settlements in those territories is inconsistent with international law. [54], In 2004, an advisory opinion by the International Court of Justice concluded that Israel had breached its obligations under international law by establishing settlements in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem and that Israel cannot rely on a right of self-defence or on a state of necessity in order to preclude the wrongfulness of imposing a régime, which is contrary to international law. Sasson summed up the situation by explaining: An unauthorized outpost is a settlement which does not fulfill at least one of the above mentioned conditions. The only case Peace Now knows of in which the procedure of initial registration of land was used as a means to turn land into state land is the case of the three orders issued in July 2008 for the purpose of expanding the settlement of Efrat. [93], Israel contends that the Geneva Convention only applies in the absence of an operative peace agreement and between two powers accepting the Convention. ", "The international community considers Israeli settlements within the occupied territories illegal and in breach of, inter alia, United Nations Security Council resolution 465 of 1 March 1980 calling on Israel 'to dismantle the existing settlements and in particular to cease, on an urgent basis, the establishment, construction and planning of settlements in the Arab territories occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem'. The order allows the Commissioner of Governmental and Abandoned property to lease and even sell the land. If you look at Israel's justifications for its settlements, from Ariel to the E1 Plan, they largely involve establishing a foothold on land it can use to protect itself (though one of the largest Israel settlements, Ma'ale Adumim, is also intended to provide cheap housing to … The following year the Court ruled on Dwikat et al. In addition, many Israeli settlements have been established on sites that were home to Jewish communities before 1948 such as Neve Yaakov, Gush Etzion, Hebron, Kalia, and Kfar Darom. [i] Levi Eshkol informed Washington it would return Syrian and Egyptian territory in exchange for peace, but there was no mention of returning the West Bank,[29] though secret talks with Jordan did take place over possible forms of accommodation between the two countries regarding it. It is only intended to cover forcible transfers and to protect the local population from displacement: In addition, they state that the Geneva Convention only applies in the absence of an operative peace agreement and between two powers accepting the Convention. [citation needed] Whereas the UNSC resolutions 660 and 687 regarding Iraq's Invasion of Kuwait and the UNSC 1441 before the Gulf War demanded Iraq's immediate withdrawal from land it occupied belligerently, and regarded as a casus belli its putative recourse to a programme for building weapons of mass destruction, Israel, though occupying a foreign territory and reputedly having an atomic arsenal, was treated differently. Unauthorized is illegal. Resolution 242 can thus be interpreted as preventing Israel from consolidating title over all territory taken by force at any time in the absence of a final peace settlement.[146]. And there are illegal settlements built against the government's public wishes -- but that ultimately become accepted and rarely stopped by the government. ", "The international community has taken a critical view of both deportations and settlements as being contrary to international law. [r], In June 1980, the (then nine-member) European Economic Community declared in the Venice Declaration that "settlements, as well as modifications in population and property in the occupied Arab territories, are illegal under international law. [161][162] During the tour, Yishai stated that the outposts are not illegal: The people of Israel should know that these settlements [outposts] are legal. Therefore these lands cannot be used for the establishment of settlements. Defining The International Criminal Court's Rome Statute provisions about transfer of civilians was complicated by Israel's position, since Israel felt it was being targeted. Since 1967, Israel has allowed and even encouraged its citizens to live in the new settlements established in the territories, motivated by religious and national sentiments attached to the history of the Jewish nation in the land of Israel. Despite Yasser Arafat's official renunciation of terrorism and recognition of Israel… [63], An opinion in 1978 by Legal Adviser of the Department of State Herbert J. Hansell concluded that the settlements are "inconsistent with international law", and against Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention. Over the years, Israel has used a number of legal and bureaucratic procedures in order to appropriate West Bank lands, with the primary objective of establishing settlements and providing land reserves for them. In this situation of sovereignty vacuum, he thinks, sovereignty could be forthwith acquired by any state that was in a position to assert effective and stable control without resort to unlawful means.[125]. [17][18] The majority of legal scholars hold the settlements to violate international law, while others have offered dissenting views supporting the Israeli position. General Assembly resolutions have condemned the deportations since 1969, and have done so by overwhelming majorities in recent years. They were built on the fringes of the territories, along the Jordanian and Syrian frontiers and along the edges of the Sinai Peninsula. The view has been advanced that a transfer is prohibited under paragraph 6 only to the extent that it involves the displacement of the local population. [143] The Declaration of Principles in the accords only state that future negotiations will "lead to the implementation of Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338".[144]. “State Land”. Using primarily these five methods: seizure for military purposes; declaration of state lands; seizure of absentee property; confiscation for public needs; andinitial registration, Israel has managed to take over about 50% of the lands in the West Bank, barring the local Palestinian public from using them. In its 2004 advisory opinion on the Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory it states, at paragraph 120, that Article 49(6) "prohibits not only deportations or forced transfers of population…but also any measures taken by an occupying Power in order to organize or encourage transfers of parts of its own population into the occupied territory." It demands that Israel stop such activity and fulfill its obligations as an occupying power under the Fourth Geneva Convention. Since the Oslo Accords leave the issue of settlements to be negotiated later, proponents of this view argue that the Palestinians accepted the temporary presence of Israeli settlements pending further negotiation, and that there is no basis for declaring them illegal. If the land is not registered, one would be considered the owner as long as he cultivates it and pays taxes on it. To formally register land as private property, one must cultivate it for at least ten years. Former Israeli diplomat Dore Gold writes that: The language of "occupation" has allowed Palestinian spokesmen to obfuscate this history. He quotes Former State Department Legal Advisor Stephen Schwebel, who later headed the International Court of Justice in the Hague, and wrote in 1970 regarding Israel's case: Where the prior holder of territory had seized that territory unlawfully, the state which subsequently takes that territory in the lawful exercise of self-defense has, against that prior holder, better title. This leads me to claim two of the Israeli government from earlier, that the land being settled was disputed territory rather than occupied territory. Nevertheless, in at least one case – that of Ma’ale Adummim – 1,000 hectares of Palestinian land were confiscated for the settlement. During the 1920’s, the British began a process of registering the land to the farmers who cultivated it or residents who owned houses that were built on it. The argument is one made by Meir Shamgar much earlier. In response to the United States announcement on 18 November 2019 that it no longer considers Israeli settlements to be inconsistent with international law, the United Nations responded: A change in the policy position of one state does not modify existing international law nor its interpretation by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the Security Council,[82][83].

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