Sonja Karkar
Israel’s settlement and security policies are being pursued relentlessly and without interruption in the West Bank, despite the latest attempts to allow the Palestinian Authority (PA) to administer its own security arrangements as well as most civil Palestinian affairs.
The illegal settlement project has devastatingly undermined the territorial basis for Palestinian self-governance established by the Oslo II accord of 1995 and gives
Israel an excuse to intensify security which only adds to the unbearable day-to-day conditions endured by every Palestinian living under occupation.
Despite the seemingly amicable talks going on between Israel’s Prime Minister Olmert and Palestinian President Abbas, Israel is not countenancing in the slightest ending the occupation or dismantling and removing the settlements. In fact, Israel has little reason to change its policies since it has not been reined in by the US and other Western governments for contravening international law and UN resolutions. And,
now that the PA is in shambles with Abbas in no position to negotiate anything of worth, Israel will simply be looking to consolidate its rule, as it has always done.
This raises again the proposed Continuous Movement plan (already partially implemented) which establishes an Israeli-only existing road network for the illegal settlements in the West Bank while creating an inferior network for Palestinian use. Although opposed by the World Bank and others, Israel is likely to present a case for completing the road network project, particularly as Israel wants to impose this as a
two-state solution – one in name only for the Palestinians. The worry is that the international community may well find this idea of a two-tiered existence for both peoples a pragmatic solution to what is the intractable problem of what to do with 4 million Palestinians, little realizing the matrix of control Israel has already established undermines the viability of any Palestinian state.
The last thing that Israel wants is for the one- state solution to “come out of the shadows and begin to enter the mainstream. . .” as Alvaro de Soto, the former UN Under-Secretary-General suggested it would in his end of mission report in May this year.
Creating realities on the ground Ever since Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) signed the Declaration of Principles (DOP) in 1993, Israel has done everything to create facts on the ground to ensure that the final status issues would be permanently compromised. Dramatic increases in illegal settlement activity occurred particularly between January 2003 and June 2006 when tens of thousands of housing tenders were issued by the Israeli Ministry of Construction and Housing for new housing units in the West Bank illegal settlements. Most of these have occurred in the governorates of Ramallah, Bethlehem, Salfit and Jerusalem. In December last year, Israel announced plans for a new illegal settlement in the Jordan Valley which will house 30 families that originally inhabited the illegal settlement of Gush Katif in the Gaza Strip prior to Israel’s unilateral disengagement.
This “revolving door” policy referred to in a letter to the UN Secretary-General by Ambassador Mansour, Permanent Observer of Palestine to the UN, is constantly being used by Israel to relocate illegal settlers in the West Bank whether from the Gaza Strip or when an illegal outpost is vacated. All these illegal settlements have stripped the Palestinians of their cultivated lands as well as lands reserved for future expansion of their built-up areas Securing Jerusalem While the US opposed the E-1 plan restricting the expansion of Jerusalem east towards the largest illegal settlement bloc Ma’ale Adumim, it did not stop Israel from issuing tenders in January this year to allow the building of an additional 44 housing units in Ma’ale Adumim.
Israel also wasted no time in linking the West Jerusalem neighbourhood of Malha with the settlements of Gilo, Beitar Illit and the Etzion bloc in the south of
the city and has announced plans to build thousands of units in existing and new settlement communities in East Jerusalem. This would bring more than 50,000 ultra-Orthodox Jews into the area and force the Palestinians into a minority group in a city that has been up until now overwhelmingly Palestinian. This settlement belt along the southern boundary of Jerusalem, the expansion of the Ma’ale Adumim settlement and the illegal Apartheid Wall are all deliberately designed to prevent Palestinian population growth and development by cutting off and isolating East
Jerusalem from the West Bank and severing the territorial contiguity between the northern and southern West Bank districts.
Israel’s High Court factors in settlement expansion for consideration of Wall route
According to numerous rulings of Israel’s High Court, not only is Israel’s security paramount, but even the security of the illegal settlements is a legitimate consideration when planning the route of the Apartheid Wall. While the military establishment - which has the authority to put up the Wall in occupied territory, has to consider those factors equally with the human rights of the Palestinians, a recent decision has shown the security of Israel and the settlements is, in fact, being given more weight than the detrimental effect this push for security has on the Palestinians.
In making the ruling, the High Court ignored the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice which rejected Israel’s security justifications,
declared the Wall illegal and that it must come down. By ruling the security of the settlements as legitimate concerns, it normalises what is illegal in the first instance – the building and maintenance of settlements on occupied Palestinian land.
Israel’s breaches and obligations
Israel is violating all international agreements, conventions and international law rules by expanding the illegal Israeli settlements in the Occupied West Bank horizontally and vertically. Its plans and expansions clearly contradict the following:
UNSC Resolutions 452 and 465: 'Call upon the Government and people of Israel to cease, on an urgent basis, the establishment, construction and planning of settlements in the Arab occupied Territory since 1967, including Jerusalem.'
Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949: 'the occupying power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own population into the Territory it occupies.' Moreover, article 8(b)(viii) of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court regards such a population transfer as a war crime.
The Fourth Geneva Convention in Article 174 also prohibits the 'extensive destruction and appropriation of property not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly.'
Article XXXI, Oslo II, 1995: 'Neither side shall take any step that will change the status of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
The Roadmap signed on April 30, 2003 between Israel and the Palestinians (originally developed by the United States, in cooperation with Russia, the European Union, and the United Nations (the Quartet)) under which the Israeli Government agreed to freeze all settlement building.
Action that Needs to be taken:
DEMAND THAT ISRAEL IMMEDIATELY STOPS FURTHER ILLEGAL SETTLEMENT BUILDING IN THE WEST BANK
DEMAND THAT ISRAEL IMMEDIATELY DISMANTLES THE ILLEGAL SETTLEMENTS IN THE WEST BANK
DEMAND THAT ISRAEL ABIDE BY ALL OF ITS LEGAL OBLIGATIONS UNDER INTERNATIONAL LAW
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