- Title: ISRAEL: An Israeli government panel backs legalising settler outposts
- Date: 9th July 2012
- Summary: ELI SETTLEMENT, WEST BANK (FILE) (REUTERS) SIGN READING 'HAYOVEL NEIGHBOURHOOD' ROAD LEADING TO HAYOVEL OUTPOST, SIGN ON SIDE OF THE ROAD HOUSES IN HAYOVEL OUTPOST ISRAELI FLAG HOUSE IN HAYOVEL OUTPOST WITH ISRAELI FLAG IN GARDEN WOMAN WALKING IN HER GARDEN MORE OF HOUSES IN HAYOVEL OUTPOST
- Embargoed: 24th July 2012 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: West bank
- City:
- Country: Palestinian Territories
- Topics: Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA97T4912O3MK00STCQBA94HQFC
- Story Text: A government-appointed committee proposed on Monday (July 9) granting official status to dozens of unauthorised settler outposts in the West Bank and challenged the world view that Israeli settlement there is illegal.
The non-binding legal opinion, which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had sought, could be used by the right-wing leader to address criticism at home and abroad of his declared plans to build more homes for Jews on land Palestinians want for a state.
Three months ago, his governing coalition drew Palestinian and international condemnation when it retroactively legalised three West Bank outposts built without official sanction.
But the panel, chaired by a former Israeli Supreme Court justice who has written pro-settlement opinions from the bench, reaffirmed Israel's long-held view that the West Bank is not occupied territory and settling Jews there is legal.
The opinion, which has yet to be formally accepted by the government, flew in the face of the World Court's determination that all settlements are illegal because of their location on occupied land.
The Israeli committee disputed that ruling, arguing that Israel's control of the West Bank does not constitute occupation because no country was sovereign over the territory when it was captured from Jordan in a 1967 war.
"Therefore, according to international law, Israelis have the legal right to settle in Judea and Samaria and the establishment of settlements cannot, in and of itself, be considered to be illegal," it said, using the Biblical names for the West Bank.
Jordan captured the West Bank, which had been part of British-mandated Palestine, in the 1948 Arab-Israeli war and annexed the territory in a move that never won international recognition.
Israel has built some 120 settlements in the West Bank. Dozens of unauthorised outposts, which past Israeli governments had pledged to remove, have also gone up in the territory.
Palestinians say the enclaves will deny them a viable and contiguous state, a view that has won wide international support.
Palestinian spokesman Ghassan Khatib said the panel's recommendations contradict international law.
"The recommendations of the Israeli Edmond Levy panel contradict international legitimacy and international law, and contradict the peace process and the world's will which considers the Palestinian lands as illegally occupied. The peace will be implemented through a two-state solution, a Palestinian state in 1967 borders. These lands according to the Edmond report are going to be legal settlements," Khatib said from his office in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
In Jerusalem, Israeli Infrastructure Minister Uzi Landau supported the report.
"It's a highly authoritative document which only spells out again the right of the Jews to settle all over Judea and Samaria as was originally decided upon by the League of Nations," Landau said in Israel's parliament, the Knesset.
Addressing the issue of unsanctioned settlement outposts, the committee echoed a 2005 government report in determining they had been established "with the knowledge, encouragement and tacit agreement of the most senior political level".
But unlike the 2005 document, which said quiet government support and funding for unauthorised settlements were illegal, the new report recommended expanding them.
The time had come, it said, to complete formal "planning and zoning procedures" and set the "municipal jurisdiction" of each outpost, taking into consideration the needs of their growing populations.
"Pending completion of those proceedings and examination of the possibility of granting valid building permits, the state is advised to avoid carrying out demolition orders," the panel said. - Copyright Holder: FILE REUTERS (CAN SELL)
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