Ramallah: Israel has prepared, translated into multiple languages and distributed to all its embassies in the world a document providing the legal justification for Israeli colonies in the Palestinian territories beyond the Green Line on the pre-June 1967 borders.
According to a report by Israel’s Channel 2, the document spells out why colony construction in the occupied West Bank and occupied east Jerusalem is completely legitimate and does not violate international law. The document is seen as a dramatic change in the Israeli government’s policy on the colonies, which are likely to be treated as legitimate, legal, and historical.
The document has been put together by the Israeli foreign ministry under the current deputy foreign minister Tzipi Hotovely, who is guiding the ministry’s legal team, under strict supervision from the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has also been serving as foreign minister since the new government was formed.
Channel 2 highlighted a clause in the detailed document stating that Israel’s property claim to Judea and Samaria (biblical name of the West Bank) are valid, as the land “was never under the legitimate sovereignty of any country”, and because “the Jewish affinity to the West Bank is thousands of years old.” The document stressed that Israel had been recognised as the legitimate caretaker and entity responsible for Palestine.
Israeli encroachments, according to the document, are not new, nor do they constitute colonisation. The document highlighted Israel’s undisputed right to maintain a presence in the occupied West Bank and to carry out construction activity there. It added that such right was decisive, solid and uncompromising under the Israeli stance to replace defence lines, which consecutive Israeli governments had adopted.
The document said that several Israeli colonies were built under the rule of the Othmanis mainly in Samaria, north of the West Bank, where other colonies like Prophet Ya’aqoub colony, colony Gosh Etzion and the colonies based north of the Dead Sea were built under the British mandate on Palestine.
The document said that the attempt to present the Jewish colonies as illegitimate entities built on foreign and occupied territories is a mere politically motivated claim as history had never seen the occupied West Bank or occupied Jerusalem under Palestinian sovereignty. The document stressed that the Geneva conventions are not applicable to the occupied West Bank or occupied Jerusalem.
The document said that the Israeli colonies were established under the supervision of the Israeli Supreme Court, and the Disengagement from Gaza in 2005 was a unilateral political move, not the fulfilment of any kind of legal obligation.
The Israeli 2012 Judicial Committee headed by the head of the Israeli Supreme Court Edmund Levy authored a report on the Legal Status of Building in Judea and Samaria stating that Israel’s presence in the West Bank is not an “occupation” and the colonies are legal under international law.
The Israeli embassies in the world are preparing to assemble legal minds from across the world to examine the document.
“The international arena can not and should not be left over by the Palestinians for the Israeli baseless and abhorrent lies and fabrications even with regard to this trivial Israeli document,” said Talal Okal, a Palestinian political analyst. “Confronting the Israeli document and organising a counter campaign ends up as a Palestinian national duty, which should also urge the world to punish Israel, which does not observe the international law.”
He said that the claimed Israeli historical and legal superiority does not have a chance to win against tens of UN decisions and resolutions. “The Israeli document is a rare chance for the Palestinians to get involved in unprecedented political and diplomatic activity to confront and foil the document,” he said.
