Israel's transfer of OPT land-use powers to WZO-Settlement Division is blatant violation of international law

In a letter submitted to the Knesset's Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, Adalah – The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel requested that the bill which permits the transfer of land management powers in rural areas to a non-governmental political body that engages in the establishment of illegal settlements not be approved.

In its letter, Adalah asks that the Status of the World Zionist Organization and the Jewish Agency for Israel (Amendment - Management and Allocation of Land in the Judea and Samaria Area by the Settlement Division), 5777-2017 bill, not be approved for a first reading.

The bill is intended to transfer the land management authorities in rural areas to a non-governmental political body that engages in the establishment of illegal settlements. Should  the bill approved, the state will, officially and under Israeli law, transfer to the World Zionist Organization’s Settlement Division the authorities to manage lands in rural residential areas held by the state which will be allocated to it pursuant to the decisions of the Land Authority. The bill states that the Settlement Division will "initiate plans, develop and allocate the land, through its own means or by means of third parties".

In a letter dated 28 October 2018, Adalah Attorney Suhad Bishara clarified that the bill blatantly violates international humanitarian law applicable to the occupied West Bank.

“In practice, this matter concerns a process designed to ‘legalize’ the annexation and takeover of occupied land" says attorney Bishara, "The law regulates a mechanism that will make it possible to seize land from Palestinians without hindrance, and to also regulate the land theft retroactively. These lands were intended by international law to serve the needs of the Palestinian residents and not the Zionist settlement plans of those who initiated the law ... The proposal entrusts the administration of the natural resources, especially land in the West Bank, to the Settlement Division, which has no status under customary international law, and which is not authorized to operate in occupied territory. Moreover, the administration of the land will not benefit the Palestinian population but will rather be executed in accordance with the policy of the Israel Lands Authority and under the directives of the Government of Israel (section 1 of the bill). In other words, the administration of the land will be in the hands Israeli citizens and will benefit Jewish Israelis in keeping with Zionist settlement policy. By all accounts, these principles have never been accepted as being in line with Article 43 of the Hague Regulations".

CLICK HERE to read the letter [Hebrew]

(Photo by Avishai Teicher/PikiWiki)