Here, Mr. Voight, it is absolutely crucial to understand that if Israel were really afraid to turn over the West Bank to Palestinians for security reasons -- that is, if the occupation were in fact about security -- it could have maintained a military occupation to this day without violating international law. But instead it began a settlement enterprise that came to dominate Israeli political life, eventually placing well over half a million settlers in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, in clear contravention of international law, which expressly forbids transferring civilians from one country into an occupied territory. Indeed, Israel today could withdraw civilian settlers from the West Bank at any moment and bring itself into compliance with international law while continuing to occupy the West Bank militarily indefinitely. But of course it will never do that. In fact, as Israeli scholar Meron Benvenisti already argued back in 1987 with his West Bank Database Project, when there were only about 60,000 settlers (one 10th of the present number), by this time the West Bank was already so integrated into Israel that it would never be possible to withdraw from it.
Posted on: Sun, 17 Aug 2014 14:24:50 +0000
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