by NOREEN SADIQ
The separation barrier in the West Bank. PHOTO/Justin McIntosh.
In July, the Levy Committee, a three person panel appointed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, published the conclusion of its investigation into the legality of the Israeli settlement enterprise in the West Bank. It determined that the West Bank is not occupied territory and the settlements are not a violation of international law.
Additionally, it recommended that the outposts (unauthorized settlements which receive support and assistance from the Israeli government) be legalized and Israeli citizens be permitted to live where they want in the West Bank.
The results of the report were not surprising. The Committee was headed by Edmund Levy, a former Israeli Supreme Court judge who opposed Israel’s disengagement from Gaza claiming it violated the Jewish settlers’ rights. Joining him was Alan Baker, a former Foreign Ministry legal adviser, who lives in the West Bank, and Tchia Shapira, who used to be deputy president of the Tel Aviv District Court and comes from a right-wing background.
The Palestinian territories have been occupied since the 1967 Arab Israeli War when Israel took control of Gaza, the Sinai Peninsula, the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Syrian Golan Heights.
The report stands in defiance of Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention which states that ‘The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.’
According to a January 2011 report by the Israeli Information Centre for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, B’Tselem, ‘Israel took control of some 50 per cent of the land of the West Bank, primarily for establishment of the settlements and preparation of land reserves for their expansion.’
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