Posted on: 2008
By Diana Rowe
Overview: The international community agrees that the continual expansion of Israeli settlements within the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights serves as the key roadblock to peace.
Not only are the settlements deemed illegal by all readings of international law, but the majority of Israeli citizens recognize that the evacuation of settlements will be necessary if Israelis and Palestinians are ever to reach a lasting peace. Eleven months prior to the Annapolis Peace Conference in November 2007, fewer than 100 homes were scheduled to be commissioned in the settlements according to Israeli government figures. Now over 1,700 homes are scheduled for construction, and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has approved every proposal of settlement expansion since Annapolis.
While there is sufficient analysis regarding the detrimental impact of Israeli settlements on a potential peace negotiation and their alarming expansion rates, settlements are rarely spoken of in terms of their monetary price and their sources of funding. This missing piece of the discussion results from the fact that concrete figures for Israel’s investment into illegal settlements do not exist. Calculating an exact figure is essentially impossible because the majority of funding is allocated through winks and nods in a state budget that does not distinguish between which funds are channeling to Israel proper and which are being used in the Occupied Territories of Palestine.
The Illegal Status of Settlements
Israeli settlements in the occupied Arab lands are illegal under every reading of international law and are not recognized by any country outside Israel, including the United States. Their violations include the following:
Article 49, paragraph six of the Fourth Geneva Convention explicitly stipulates that “the occupying power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.”
-Article 46 and 55 of the Hague Convention prohibit the confiscation of private property in occupied territory and stipulates that “the occupying state shall be regarded only as administrator and usufructuary of public buildings, real estate, forests, and agricultural estates belonging to the hostile State, and situated in the occupied country. It must safeguard the capital of these properties, and administer them in accordance with the rules of usufruct,” respectively.
-United Nations (UN) Security Council Resolution 465 states that “Israel’s policy and practices of settling parts of its population and new immigrants” in the Occupied Territories constitutes “a serious obstruction to achieving a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the Middle East.” The Security Council called upon Israel to “dismantle the existing settlements and in particular to cease, on an urgent basis, the establishment, construction or planning of settlements in the Arab territories occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem.”
-The 2004 ruling of the International Court of Justice in The Hague declared that “Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, are illegal and an obstacle to peace and to economic and social development.”
The building of settlements began after the 1967 war when Israel took control of Arab lands in the West Bank, Gaza, East Jerusalem, the Golan Heights and the Sinai Peninsula, but expansion did not take a strong-hold until the Likud party gained power in 1977 which has since spearheaded the majority of support within the government. Despite the international condemnation of the settlements, the Israeli government, regardless of which party holds the majority in Parliament, continues to support settlements in an effort to appease right-wing religious camp within Israel that possess power to diminish political leverage.
Many Israeli government officials attempt to justify settlement expansion by insisting that the majority of expansion is taking place in what has come to be known as “settlement blocs.” According to Americans for Peace Now, “a’ settlement bloc’ is an informal term, referring to areas in the West Bank where clusters of settlements have been established in relatively close proximity to one another.” Such a term has become a code name for areas which are supposedly within the Israeli national “consensus” as being settlements which should, and likely will remain a part of Israel proper under any potential peace agreement. Yet, these “settlement blocs” have no legal definition or standing under either Israeli or international law.
The Israeli governments of the past and present have invested heavily into the “settlement blocs” to make it appear as though they are a part of Israel proper, despite the fact that they have never been officially annexed. Settlements such as Ma’ale Adumim, Modi’in Illit and Beitar Illit are each home to more than 30,000 people, not including their surrounding “suburb” communities, and have been named official cities by the state of Israel.
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Source:
http://www.thejerusalemfund.org
