What are illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank ?
Since shortly after it began militarily occupying the Palestinian West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza in the 1967 War, Israel has been colonizing them with Jewish settlers in violation of international law, part of an effort to cement control and prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state.
Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War states: "The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies." The Hague Convention on the laws of war also forbids occupying powers from making permanent changes in the occupied territory unless it is a military necessity.
Virtually the entire international community including the United Nations Security Council, the International Court of Justice, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and human rights organizations like Amnesty international and Human Rights Watch consider Israel’s settlement enterprise to be illegal. With the exception of the administration of President Donald Trump, official American policy has also never recognized the legality of settlements, although for political reasons US officials normally refer to them as “illegitimate” rather than illegal.
In its 2004 advisory opinion that deemed the wall that Israel is building in the West Bank illegal, the International Court of Justice also found Israeli settlements in the occupied territories to be in contravention of international law.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) declared last week that all activities carried out by Israel in the occupied Palestinian territories are illegal and that its unlawful presence should be brought to an end and reparations made to Palestinians.
The extensive list of breaches of international law includes the building and expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, the transfer of settlers into the occupied territories, the use and exploitation of natural resources in Palestinian territory, the annexation and imposition of permanent control over Palestinian land, house demolitions, and other discriminatory restrictions on Palestinians.
Crucially, the ICJ established that Israel has no right to sovereignty over the territories and that its policies and practices "amount to annexation", referring to it as the forcible acquisition of occupied territory by an occupying power.
It also found Israel responsible for racial segregation and apartheid noting that its legislation and measures serve to "maintain a near-complete separation" in the West Bank and East Jerusalem between the settler and Palestinian communities.
The over 80-page opinion marks the first time the ICJ has deemed Israel’s long-term occupation of Palestinian territory “unlawful”, breaching international human rights and impeding Palestinian self-determination.
The court further ordered Israel to immediately refrain from all new settlement activity, evacuate all settlers from the territories, and withdraw its forces from all parts of the occupied territories. In addition, it requires Israel to pay reparations to Palestinians for damages resulting from its occupation. That means returning their land and assets seized since 1967 and allowing all Palestinian displaced during the occupation to return.
In another major step, the world’s highest court advised that other states and international organisations are under an obligation not to recognise the occupation as legal nor to provide aid or assistance that would maintain the current status quo.
The ICJ confirmed that settlements violate Article 49 of the 4th Geneva Convention which prohibits an occupying power from transferring its population into occupied territory, considering it a “war crime”.
Successive Israeli governments have argued that settlement building is not illegal, however a formerly classified document dated September 1967 shows that the legal counsel to Israel’s Foreign Ministry at the time, Theodor Meron, advised the government of Prime Minister Levi Eshkol that “civilian settlement in the administered territories contravenes the explicit provisions of the Fourth Geneva Convention."
Today there are over 450,000: Number of Israeli settlers living illegally on occupied Palestinian land in the West Bank. (Additionally, there are more than 225,000 Jewish settlers living illegally on occupied Palestinian land in East Jerusalem). Approximately 11,000 of the settlers in the West Bank are located in the Jordan Valley. Additionally, over 25,000 Israeli settlers live illegaly in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights. There are 279: Number of official Israeli settlements built on occupied Palestinian land in the West Bank, an area smaller than the state of Delaware; at least 147 of these are so-called settlement “outposts,” or new small settlements built without official approval but with the support and assistance of the Israeli government.
The presence, and the location of strategically placed settlements, make the creation of a contiguous Palestinian state in the occupied territories all but impossible. They also cause severe hardships for Palestinians on a daily basis. Hundreds of Israeli military checkpoints and other obstacles to movement intended to benefit and privilege Jewish settlers also dot the landscape, making it difficult and dangerous for Palestinians to travel from one place to another to visit family or friends, get to school, work, the doctor, or lead a normal life. Israel has built highways for settlers to "bypass" Palestinians on their way to Israel's internationally recognized pre-1967 borders and other settlements that take more Palestinian land and further divide Palestinian communities. Violent settlers frequently attack Palestinians and their property, often while under the protection of Israeli soldiers, who do nothing to stop them and sometimes join in.