Israel uses lawfare to seize more control over Palestinian land
It's part of a plan to fully colonise the West Bank
Israel’s government has agreed to ‘legalise’ five settlements in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territory of the West Bank. Yet the UN, the EU, and the International Court of Justice confirm that the Israeli expansion of settlements is illegal. The fourth Geneva Convention prohibits the transfer of an occupying force’s population into the territory it occupies.
Israel: fully colonising Palestine
Israel’s lawfare move appears to be part of a plan to fully colonise the West Bank, despite prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicly distancing himself from this. In a leaked recording, Israeli finance minister Bezalel Smotrich said “we created a separate civilian system” to transfer authority from the Israeli military to settlers. He said the defense ministry remains involved in order to hide the transition from occupation to full colonisation of Palestinian land and resources.
“It will be easier to swallow in the international and legal context. So that they won’t say that we are doing annexation here”, Smotrich said.
The finance minister has said the government will establish an illegal Israeli settlement for every country that recognises Palestinian statehood. His comment came after Spain, Norway, and Ireland became the latest countries to formally recognise Palestine in May.
A violent project
Smotrich said he plans to “bring a million” Israeli settlers to “Judea and Samaria”, the occupation’s name for the West Bank. There are already over 700,000 Israeli settlers living in the West Bank, including in East Jerusalem, among the 2.7 million Palestinians. These settlers force Palestinians out of their homes often with military-backed violence. Throughout 2023, colonial Israel killed at least 507 Palestinian people in the West Bank.
Using the genocidal assault on Gaza as a distraction, Israel has increased its rate of expansion into the West Bank. Kerem Navot, an Israeli monitoring group, estimates that settlers have seized 37,000 acres of Palestinian land in the West Bank since 7 October.
In 2023, Smotrich delivered a speech alongside a map of ‘Greater Israel’. This included the rest of Palestine (Gaza and the West Bank), as well as parts of Syria and Jordan, as Israeli territory. In response, Jordan summoned the Israeli envoy in protest.
Israel’s colonial effort in the Middle East could be just beginning. We must continue to argue for cooperation over colonisation.
Featured image via i24NEWS English – YouTube
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There is NO Israel…
There is Palestine, which under the Balfour Agreement allowed the persecuted Jews to settle in parts of Palestine.
In Palestine, there were already Jews and they, and the Palestinians lived peacefully side by side.
Then came the zionists and everything changed.
Apartheid raised its ugly head and land was stolen from the Palestinians.
!948 Nakba was the eviction of thousands of Palestinians from Palestinian land to make way for the zionist Jews…
In November 1947, the UN General Assembly passed a resolution partitioning Palestine into two states, one Jewish and one Arab, with Jerusalem under a UN administration. The Arab world rejected the plan, arguing that it was unfair and violated the UN Charter. Jewish militias launched attacks against Palestinian villages, forcing thousands to flee.
The situation escalated into a full-blown war in 1948, with the end of the British Mandate and the departure of British forces, the declaration of independence of the State of Israel, and the entry of neighbouring Arab armies. The newly established Israeli forces launched a major offensive. The result of the war was the permanent displacement of more than half of the Palestinian population.
As early as December 1948, the UN General Assembly called for refugee return, property restitution, and compensation (resolution 194 (II)). However, 75 years later, despite countless UN resolutions, the rights of the Palestinians continue to be denied. According to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), more than 5 million Palestine refugees are scattered throughout the Middle East. Today, Palestinians continue to be dispossessed and displaced by Israeli settlements, evictions, land confiscation, and home demolitions.