[News] Israel's intention to annex the West Bank revealed

[Anti-Imperialist News]

  Israel's intention to annex the West Bank revealed

Aug. 20, 2018 - http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=780766
BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- Adalah, the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights 
in Israel, warned on Monday that the Israeli government’s response to 
the petition, filed to the Israeli Supreme Court, signals Israel's 
intention to proceed with annexation of the occupied West Bank.

The Israeli government submitted legal materials to the Israeli Supreme 
Court declaring that "the Knesset (Israeli parliament) is permitted to 
legislate laws everywhere in the world and it is authorized to violate 
the sovereignty of foreign countries via legislation that would be 
applied to events occurring in their territories."

This statement was declared on August 7th in a written response, which 
the Israeli government had submitted to the Israeli Supreme Court, 
regarding to the petition against the Settlement Regularization Law 
filed by Adalah and Al Mezan Center for Human Rights in Gaza on behalf 
of 17 local Palestinian authorities in the West Bank.

Adalah and fellow petitioners argued that the Israeli Knesset is not 
permitted to enact and impose laws on territory occupied by Israel. 
Hence, the Knesset cannot enact laws that annex the West Bank or that 
violate the rights of Palestinian residents of the West Bank.

The Israeli government’s lawyer, Arnon Harel, wrote in the legal 
materials submitted to that "The Knesset is permitted to impose the 
powers of the military commander of the West Bank region as it sees fit. 
The Knesset is permitted to define the authorities of the military 
commander as it sees fit. The authority of the government of Israel to 
annex any territory or to enter into international conventions derives 
from its authority as determined by the Knesset.

Harel concluded "the Knesset is allowed to ignore the directives of 
international law in any field it desires," which is a direct violation 
of international law and international humanitarian law.

In response, Suhad Bishara and Myssana Morany, lawyers of Adalah, who 
filed the petition against the Settlement Regularization Law, said "the 
Israeli government's extremist response has no parallel anywhere in the 
world. It stands in gross violation of international law and of the 
United Nations Charter which obligates member states to refrain from 
threatening or using force against the territorial integrity of other 
states – including occupied territories.

The Israeli government's extremist position is, in fact, a declaration 
of its intention to proceed with its annexation of the West Bank."

The petition was submitted by 17 Palestinian municipalities and three 
human rights organizations from the West Bank, Israel, and Gaza Strip 
jointly petitioned the Israeli Supreme Court on February 8th 2017 to 
cancel the controversial Settlement Regularization Law under the pretext 
that it violates international humanitarian law and is labeled as 
unconstitutional.

The Settlement Regularization Law aims to "legalize," under Israeli law, 
illegal Israeli settlement outposts, which have been built on private 
Palestinian land.

The law sets out a new process to legalize about half of Israel's 
settlement outposts, as well as about 3,000 additional homes built 
illegally in settlements, which Israel recognizes as legal. Essentially, 
this law authorizes a further massive land theft of private Palestinian 
land by Israel. The European Union and the United Nations strongly 
condemned the law, and even Israel's attorney general announced that he 
would not defend it in court

The petitioners said "the law not only harms the private property of 
Palestinians, but is also intended to impinge upon their right to 
dignity by clarifying – without hesitation – that the interests of the 
settlements and the Israeli Jewish settlers in the West Bank take 
priority over the rights of Palestinians and therefore is permitted to 
dispossess Palestinians from their property."
-- 
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