I'm glad that's settled

There's never been any question where the vast majority of the world stands with regard to the legality of Israeli settlements, as expressed in documents like UN Security Council Resolution 465:

The Security Council, [...]

5. Determines that all measures taken by Israel to change the physical character, demographic composition, institutional structure or status of the Palestinian and other Arab territories occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem, or any part thereof, have no legal validity and that Israel's policy and practices of settling parts of its population and new immigrants in those territories constitute a flagrant violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War and also constitute a serious obstruction to achieving a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the Middle East;

6. Strongly deplores the continuation and persistence of Israel in pursuing those policies and practices and calls upon the Government and people of Israel to rescind those measures, to dismantle the existing settlements and in particular to cease, on an urgent basis, the establishment, construction and planning of settlements in the Arab territories occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem;

But two years ago we found out that the Israeli Foreign Ministry's legal adviser came to the same conclusion in 1967, before the settlement project had even begun (and has unequivocally reiterated that conclusion):

A senior legal official who secretly warned the government of Israel after the Six Day War of 1967 that it would be illegal to build Jewish settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories has said, for the first time, that he still believes that he was right. [...]

The legal opinion, a copy of which has been obtained by The Independent, was marked "Top Secret" and "Extremely Urgent" and reached the unequivocal conclusion, in the words of its author's summary, "that civilian settlement in the administered territories contravenes the explicit provisions of the Fourth Geneva Convention."

And this week we discovered that the United States reached the same conclusion as well, in a legal opinion that still stands:

Thirty years ago, the State Department legal adviser issued an opinion in response to an inquiry from Congress: The establishment of Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian territories "is inconsistent with international law."

The opinion cited Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which states that an occupying power "shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies." [...]

Despite the passage of time, the legal opinion, issued during the Carter administration, has never been revoked or revised.

I'm sure you'll agree this is wonderful news!  Now that we know that the entire world—including Israel and the United States—is unanimous in recognizing that Israeli colonization of Palestinian and other Arab territories occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem, has been in direct contravention of the Fourth Geneva Convention, surely it'll be just a few weeks before this whole sordid chapter of history is closed.  Given this universal understanding that settlements are illegal, I'm sure Israel (with U.S. backing) will do everything it can to get those international law-breaking, human rights-denying settlers out of there in no time!

Now, I'm sure some people might doubt this will happen, and I guess I can understand their skepticism.  Much worse, though, I'm sure there are a few who feel that Israel and the U.S. should ignore their own unequivocal legal advice.  But clearly the only people who'd want upstanding, law-abiding nations like Israel and the U.S. to continue behavior that the world unanimously recognizes as flatly illegal are unrepentant America-haters and anti-Semites—people who want nothing more than to make these two paragons of virtue look bad.

So from now on, whenever you hear someone defending Israeli settlements or calling on the U.S. to lend any support to the settlement project (including the slightest compromise on "natural growth"), no matter who it might be, you can rest assured they're motivated by nothing more than their implacable hatred for both Israel and America.

Comments

[Erik]

I am afraid that journalists can continue to use the useful phrase:

... settlements, which some countries believe are illegal ...

These facts do not change the underlying truth of that statement, for presumably some holdout country can still be found to make "some" the truth.

[SteveB]

Is "inconsistent with international law" any different than "illegal"? Funny how the language gets all complicated when people in power are breaking the law. For the rest of us, "Inconsistent with the speed limit" won't get you out of that next moving violation.

[John Caruso]

Good point. I suppose it's basically a recognition of the fact that international law is observed mainly in the breach, especially by the very nations for whom it would mean the most.

[Christian]

If you're looking for something worthwhile to read while you are waiting for the arrival of international law, there is Eyal Weizman's "Hollow Land: Israel's Architecture of Occupation". London: Verso, 2007. Weizman is an architect and Director at the centre for Research Architecture at Goldsmiths College, University of London.
"Hollow Land is a groundbreaking exploration of the political space created by Israel's colonial occupation. In this journey from the deep subterranean spaces of the West Bank and Gaza to their militarized airspace, Weizman unravels Israel's mechanisms of control and its transformation of the Occupied Territories into a theoretically constructed artifice, in which natural and built features function as the weapons and ammunition with which the conflict is waged. Weizman traces the development of these ideas, from the influence of archaeology on urban planning, Ariel Sharon's reconceptualization of military defense during the 1973 war, through the planning and architecture of the settlements, to contemporary Israeli discourse and practice of urban warfare. In exploring Israel's methods to transform the landscape itself into a tool of total domination and control, Hollow Land lays bare the political system at the heart of this complex and terrifying project of late-modern colonial occupation."