(November 18, 2019) US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has announced that the US now repudiates the 1978 State Department legal opinion that the Israeli settlements in occupied Palestine violate international law.
Israeli settlements
Israeli settlements exist in several areas and are described by Wikipedia as follows: "Israeli settlements are civilian communities inhabited by Israeli citizens, almost exclusively of Jewish ethnicity,[1][2] built on lands occupied by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War.[3] Israeli settlements currently exist in the Palestinian territory of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and in the Syrian territory of the Golan Heights, and had previously existed within the Egyptian territory of the Sinai Peninsula, and within the Palestinian territory of the Gaza Strip; however, Israel evacuated and dismantled the 18 Sinai settlements following the 1979 Egypt–Israel peace agreement and all of the 21 settlements in the Gaza Strip, along with four in the West Bank, in 2005 as part of its unilateral disengagement from Gaza.[4] The international community considers the settlements to be illegal under international law,[5] and the United Nations has repeatedly upheld the view that Israel's construction of settlements constitutes a violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention."
The fourth Geneva Convention explicitly bars occupying powers from transferring its own civilian population into an occupied territory. This is exactly what Israel has done.
Pompeo's position
Pompeo says that the US position is based on "unique facts". While Pompeo claims that the US is not trying to reinterpret international law the State Dept. will now argue that international law does not advance the cause of peace and should therefore be ignored. The unique facts appear to be that the US is a firm and constant supporter of Israeli positions even when they violate international law. The peace that ignoring the law is supposed to bring is the transfer of occupied land to Israeli settlers. Paying attention to international law would provide justification for resisting the spread of Israeli settlements in the occupied territories.
Pompeo argues that any legal questions on Israel building settlements in occupied Palestine should be handled by Israeli courts. A recent Haaretz article elaborates on Pompeo's position: "The U.S. would not be taking a view on the legal status of any specific settlement, the American top diplomat said, leaving that task to the Israeli judicial system. The Israeli court system accepts challenges to the legality of some settlements over others and is therefore best placed to decide, Pompeo said, "the U.S. will respect decisions on the subject made by Israeli courts.""
In other words the decisions of the occupier's courts and not any regard for international law will govern whether a settlement is legal. The US position is just to accept whatever Israeli courts decide. No doubt this is supposed to be a case of the US ignoring international law in the interests of peace when actually it is in the interests of Israel and against the interests of Palestinians.
The US move will no doubt encourage Israel to build more settlements and block any attempts to create a Palestinian state that could perhaps stop such settlement.
Netanyahu cheers on the Trump administration
Not surprisingly Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu had kinds words for the decision and the Trump administration: "Netanyahu echoed Pompeo’s words, saying “The Trump Administration policy is also correct in stating that those who have categorically denied any legal basis for the settlements not only deny truth, history and the reality on the ground, they also set back the cause of peace, which can only be achieved through direct negotiations between the parties.“Israel remains ready and willing to conduct peace negotiations with the Palestinians regarding all final status issues in an effort to achieve a durable peace but will continue to reject all arguments regarding the illegality of the settlements.”"
Previously published in the Digital Journal
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