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In 1967, after Israel occupied the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, the Syrian Golan Heights, and the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula, it conducted a survey of the land and the population which it had conquered. A military government was appointed to the occupied territory, and that government was especially busy regulating and managing the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, the most densely populated areas conquered by Israel in the 1967 war. The military government, later known as the ?Civil Administration,? registered those lands and buildings which belonged to the Egyptian, Jordanian, and Syrian governments, the natural reserves, the roads, open spaces, natural resources, and so on, and defined them as ?state lands.
The Israeli government claimed that it may manage the state lands under its control, although it has not always acknowledged the purpose for which the occupying power is entrusted with the land: to serve the needs of the local population.
The colonies established by Israel in the occupied territory are a clear violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention, to which Israel is a signatory.
Despite the illegality of the colonies, Israel established them in order to expand its control over the occupied territory, making a future withdrawal more difficult.
Over the first decade of the occupation, between 1967 and 1978, several attempts were made by the Israeli human rights organizations to challenge the colonies in court. The Israeli court system officially recognized the application of international law, but the state argued in court that the colonies were established for ?security reasons.?
Indeed, the law of occupation forbids transferring civilians into occupied land, but allows the occupier to build military bases in the occupied territory. Israel presented the colonies as a form of fortification. And indeed the colonies were often established in high places overlooking the surrounding lands and in key strategic locations.
But in 1979, the organizations appealed to the Israeli high court, being backed by senior military officers who admitted in court that the colony of Alon More, established near the Palestinian city of Nablus, is actually a burden on security. The civilian colonists living in Alon More must be protected by the army, requiring the application of resources that could have been used elsewhere.
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