21 Jan Are the Israeli Settlements “War Crimes”?
I realize that discussing the international law aspects of the Israeli-Palestinian dispute is not exactly a new and fresh topic likely to inspire thoughtful and reasonable thinking, and yet I was struck by the aggressive tone of this NYT editorial from a representative of the Palestinian Authority.
It is universally recognized that Israeli settlements are illegal under international law, and that without a full cessation of all settlement activity, Palestinian-Israeli negotiations and the two-state solution are both doomed. In spite of the dilution of American public statements, the United States still recognizes settlements as illegal. Not only are they a violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention; under the Rome Statute, they are considered a war crime.
Where to start? It is “universally recognized” that settlements are illegal? Really? Even in Israel, or in certain majorities of the U.S. Congress? More surprisingly, I didn’t realize that the “settlements” themselves constitute a violation of the Rome Statute? Settlements are war crimes or crimes against humanity? I sort of understand this argument, but does any one think this argument is self-evident or even highly persuasive?
I realize this excerpt is a political claim, not a legal one. But it is a good example of how certain types of international conflicts actually undermine whatever integrity and usefulness international law might have in shaping the analysis of those conflicts.
Dear Mr Ku, I have recently been writing a paper on related questions so I think I am in a position to provide you some useful information. 1. It is, to my knowledge, recognized that law and politics are non exclusive categories (already see, e.g., Hans Morgenthau, « The Machiavellian Utopia », AJIL 55, 1945, p. 145). Therefore it is pointless to pretend that claiming that a political argument is supported by law would undermine the law. Claiming that the settlements are lawful or unlawful is a legal argument that cannot be motivated by political opinion. We certainly all agree that for any international lawyer with a pretention to professionalism, the demonstration should only be based on legal considerations. But once the determination that an act is unlawful has been reached on purely legal consideration, there is no problem with exploiting its benefits on the political level. Adopting your logic, would lead to the conclusion that making any pronouncement about the legality of a politicized situation undermines international law. This would render international law absolutely pointless since political tensions very quickly arise in connection with contested questions of legality on the international level. 2. The most authoritative indication about the legality/illegality of the… Read more »
Yes, where to start? Maybe by providing a link to the actual op-ed piece (I always thought an “NYT editorial” would rather be written by the New York Times editors) by Hanan Ashrawi? This can be found at http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/21/opinion/21iht-edashrawi21.html.
By the way, I thought that international law was meant to help settle conflicts, not to shape their analysis.
Julian,
Article 8(2)(b)(viii) of the Rome Statute prohibits “[t]he transfer, directly or indirectly, by the Occupying Power of parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.” There are some difficult interpretive issues involved in the war crime, particularly concerning whether the settlers themselves violate the provision by settling in occupied territory. But the idea that (many of) the settlements constitute war crimes is anything but frivolous. Indeed, scholars agree that the inclusion of that part of Article 8(2)(b)(viii) in the Rome Statute was one of the primary reasons Israel refused (and still refuses) to ratify the treaty.
As for the ‘illegality’ portion (which does not automatically translate into criminality, of course), all ICJ Judges agreed in the Wall Opinion that the settelements are indeed unlawful (para. 120, but see also Declaration of Judge Buergenthal, para. 9). This is one of the very few times that a thorny legal issue such as this one has found a unanimous bench, so I would agree that this is universally recognized (except by the perpetrators, of course – but this is the same for every violation of the law: the perpetrator hardly ever agrees with the ‘universally recognized’ view that the conduct in question in unlawful)
In Wall, ICJ also held that “any measures taken by an occupying Power in order to organize or encourage transfers of parts of its own population into the occupied territory’ constitute violation of Art. 49(6) of GC IV.
While drafting AP I, pretty much all states (except the perpetrator, as duly noted above) agreed that settlements are a war crime. “Settlements” themselves are “a war crime” in a sense that Israel is under obligation to make sure they do not exist.
Pardon me but hopefully you can quell my curiosity. I am not entirely satisfied by the answers above, yet I would like to be convinced.
In particular, I have my reservations considering how Israel (i.e. the ‘perpetrator’) would violate an obligation stipulated under the Rome statute, which you all agree it has not signed?
And ‘big kahuna’ has referred to Israel violating Art. 49 of the GC IV, which reads:
Art. 49. Individual or mass forcible transfers, as well as deportations of protected persons from occupied territory to the territory of the Occupying Power or to that of any other country, occupied or not, are prohibited, regardless of their motive.
So my question is:
How do the Israeli settlements violate International Law, first specifically, and then universally?
I am only in the beginnings of my studies on IL so I apologize for any obvious oversight. A considerate response would be appreciated.
Response…
The last para. of Article 49 of the Geneva Civilian Convention states: “The Occupying Power shall not … transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.” Further, “unlawful deportation or transfer” is listed in Article 147 as a “grave breach” of the Convention. Article 148 adds: “No High Contracting Party shall be allowed to absolve itself or any other … of any liability incurred by itself or by another High Contracting Party in respect of breaches refered to in the preceeding article.”
Response…
The U.N. G.A. has also condemned the settlements. I know of this resolution, U.N. G.A. Res. ES-10/6 (9 Feb. 1999), there must be others as well.
First of all, UNGA Resolutions are not binding, so they are not indicative of International Law (beyond evidence towards the creation of customary International Law), per se. Thus the content of UNGAR ES-10/6 (1999) is not of a binding nature on Israel.
As for the last line of the GC IV (which I interpret as the basis from which the rest of the argument stems), Israel has not ‘transferred‘ parts of its population; the Israeli Settlers do so very gladly & of their own accord.
Does this qualify as ‘transfer’?
To answer this, I thought it might be best to take the word ‘transfer’ in the context of the beginning of the article, which reads
Art. 49. Individual or mass forcible transfers … are prohibited, regardless of their motive. (emphasis added) (see supra)
In this light, I would interpret Art. 49 as inapplicable insofar as the settlers are not ‘forcibly’ transferred.
I do appreciate the response so thank you very much! I look forward to more on the matter.
I’d like to give an opinion regarding some points mentioned earlier and latter in the comment section. As to start, I want to refer to Kevin Jon Heller‘s reaction when mentioning Article 8(2)(b)(viii), obviously, the text is clear and means that direct transfer of part of the occupier’s population in the occupied territories is a War Crime and because it does mentions if the population is voluntary or not, to my opinion, it is applicable to both cases, so it would be right. BUT I have to mention another Article of the Statute of Rome and by the same occasion react to the assumption that Israel didn’t sign it because of this issue. Article 11 “Jurisdiction ratione temporis” (1) “The court has jurisdiction only with respect to crimes committed after the entry into force of this statute.” –> All the settlements were built before 2002, and it could be arguable with respect to new building of settlements but it is not the case, as the reason advanced by the Israeli Government for building in the occupied territories is for the purpose of the growth of the population of the settlers living there, as you might know they are mainly religious… Read more »
I am sorry for the typing mistake in the second Paragrah
“because it does mentions if the population is voluntary or not”
I meant “it does not mention if …” I am sure you understood but just to be sure no doubt remains…
After careful consultation with the commentaries on Art. 49 GC IV (as well as some other very helpful sources), I am happy to declare my curiosity satisfied:
The Israeli settlements are indeed a violation of the object of Art. 49 of the GC IV.
Thus, the question of the ‘universal recognition’ of the illegality of Israeli settlements is no longer important to me; that Israel has signed the GC IV is enough to placate my doubts.
On the way out, I am still not convinced that this constitutes a “War Crime”, which I recall is one of the two sources of conflict in Julian Ku’s comment, for the same reasons above (i.e. Israel & the non-applicability of the Rome statute on her).
If anyone would like to enlighten me to that end I would appreciate it.
Thank you all for the insightful comments.
Just one little insight.
Yes according to the GC IV the settlements are illegal (as detailed here above) but they do not constitute a “War crimes” according to the Statute of Rome.
The question is to determine if there is another source of law to define war crimes, other than the Statute of Rome?
What about breach of the Geneva Convention?
The breach in question might indeed amount to a grave breach.
Israel is of course not bound by the Rome Statute. However, the Rome State can be considered in many aspects as codifying customary law, which in turn is binding on Israel and the whole of the international community. Whether this specific provision of the Rome Statute is indeed codification of custom is open to debate.
See for instance also the SC resolutions 446, 452, 465. 446: “the policy and practices of Israel in establishing settlements in the Palestinian and other Arab territories occupied since 1967 have no legal validity and constitute a serious obstruction to achieving a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the Middle East”. 452: “the policy of Israel in establishing settlements in the occupied Arab territories has no legal validity and constitutes a violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War of 12 August 1949” and “calls upon the Government and people of Israel to cease, on an urgent basis, the establishment, construction and planning of settlements in the Arab territories occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem.” Adopted by 14 votes to none, with 1 abstention.
“All special rapporteurs on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied by Israel since 1967 consider Israel’s settlement policy to be a serious violation of international law and the stumbling block in the Middle East peace process.”, Paul de Waart, “Israel’s Settlement-Policy Stumbling-Block in the Middle East Peace Process”, Leiden Journal of International Law, 20 (2007), pp. 825–839
Israel High Court has rulled a couple of times about the legality of settlements. For instance: “In Duikat, at 17, this Court discussed whether it is possible to seize land in order to build a Jewish civilian town, when the purpose of the building of the town is not the security needs and defense of the area (as it was in Ayoob), but rather based upon a Zionist perspective of settling the entire land of Israel. This question was answered by this Court in the negative. The Vice-President of this Court, Justice Landau, quoted the Prime Minister (the late Mr. Menachem Begin), regarding the right of the Jewish people to settle in Judea and Samaria. In his judgment, Justice Landau stated: The view regarding the right of the Jewish people, expressed in these words, is built upon Zionist ideology. However, the question before this Court is whether this ideology justifies the taking of the property of the individual in an area under control of the military administration. The answer to that depends upon the interpretation of article 52 of the Hague Regulations. It is my opinion that the needs of the army mentioned in that article cannot include, by way… Read more »
Whether or not the Rome Statute provision(s) are directly applicable or not is not the most important or the only question here. Israel mentioned at the Rome Conference that it didn’t ratify the Statute because of the inclusion of the transfer of the occupying powers’ own population INTO occupied territory. However, as some have pointed out, the Geneva Convention grave breaches regime clearly applies to the situation and also prohibits things like illegal appropriation of property. This is of course not to say that ALL settlements are by definition illegal appropriations, but some probably are. Moreover, the prohibition of transferring parts of your popoulation into an occupied territory does not have to be ‘forcible’ (as is the case for transfers of the occupied population OUTSIDE or WITHIN occupied territory). If a government provides strong incentives (and Israel seems to do so at least to a certain extent), this may suffice for state attribution – of course each case has to be viewed individually. This is a grave beach, but of Additional Protocol I, also not ratified by Israel. However, there are solid arguments to be made that the prohibiton of transfering your own population into occupied territory is part of… Read more »
The State Department’s legal advisor also issued an opinion in 1978 that the settlements were illegal under international law. That opinion has never been revised or withdrawn.
This conversation ignores the major question at issue; i.e. are the territories occupied? How can there be occupation of an area which is still disputed? The major flaws of the foregoing arguments are that they ignore the sui generis nature of the territories. Quoting sections of the Rome Statute and the Geneva Convention do not address the territories’ unique status. Tracing ownership of the areas in question will lead us back to the Ottoman Empire, a defunct entity, thereby rendering the region a true “no-man’s land.” Resolution 242 (legally binding) calls on the parties to continue peace negotiations and permits Israel to administer the territories gained in 1967 until “a just and lasting peace in the Middle East” is achieved. When that peace is reached, Israel must withdraw “from territories” it occupied during the Six Day War. Notice there is no modifier for “territories;” not all, not most, just the word “territories.” Perhaps Israel has already fulfilled this obligation by withdrawing from Sinai, areas of the West Bank, the Golan Heights, and the Gaza Strip. The following analysis by the late Prof. Julius Stone provides a further compelling argument to buttress the claim that the areas are not occupied: Israel‘s presence… Read more »
Of course, the situation does not fall within the law – just like the war in Iraq, extraordinary renditions, detentions in Guantanamo: they are all new situations, so the Powers in question can do what they want. How satisfactory this is! The difference between jus in bello and jus ad bellum is indeed meaningless – since Israel entered the territories lawfully 45 years ago, its presence is still meaningful, no issue of proportionality vis-a-vis the changed situation arises. How strange that even a memo from Israel’s own foreign service says otherwise, though…this Ted Meron must have been a pro-Arab extremist, surely not a respected international lawyer who ended up being nominated by a US Republican administration as Judge at the ICTY.
Article 147 of the fourth Geneva convention refers to the unlawful deportation or transfer of protected persons. Since Israeli citizens are not protected by the convention it does not apply to the relevant paragraph in article 49.
To get some more perspective (though most people commenting here are probably aware of it) the ICRC interpretation says” “t is intended to prevent a practice adopted during the Second World War by certain Powers, which transferred portions of their own population to occupied territory for political and racial reasons or in order, as they claimed, to colonize those territories. Such transfers worsened the economic situation of the native population and endangered their separate existence as a race.” Even WWII deportations wouldn’t constitute a war crime according to the convention.
2 Yaniv:
Article 49(6) of the Convention states that ‘[t]he Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies’. Where does it say anything about protected persons requirement? You are confusing two different issues.
Unfortunately, much of the above discussion is foolish and ignorant of history. Before getting into historical issues related to the law, we can dispense with the Int’l Court of Justice at the Hague. Its members are appointed by governments and indeed habitually represent the positions of their own governments. Obviously, no justice can be expected from the Int’l Court of Justice, anymore than from the UN general assembly or the security council. Then there is the issue of whether or not the areas in question are indeed “occupied”. What in Israel are called Judea and Samaria, indeed the land on both sides of the Jordan, were part of the Jewish National Home juridically erected by the San Remo Conference [1920], endorsed and spelled out in detail by the League of Nations in 1922, agreed to by the USA in the Anglo-American Convention on Palestine in 1925, and confirmed by the UN charter [Article 80 in 1945]. The UN GA partition plan voted on 29 Nov 1947 was a mere recommendation as are all UN GA resolutions on political matters [UN charter, articles 10-14]. So the partition recommendation, against which the Arab states and the Palestinian Arabs made war, by the… Read more »
Actually, the Anglo-American Convention seems to have been signed in December 1924
http://myrightword.blogspot.com/2009/11/that-anglo-american-convention-of-1924.html.
I think what should have been noted is that not only did the local Arabs engage in war and 7 Arab states as well joined in the fray but the 1947 Partition recommendation was rejected by the Arabs of the Mandate and so it is a dead letter.
Moreover, as regards the Geneva Convention, “Palestine” could not have been, and wasn’t, a “High Contracting Party” to that 1949 Convention so that too is problematic for the application of its terms to a country/state that never existed.
I will not enter into another problem: that the leader of the Arab community in the Palestine Mandate himself committed war crimes in aligning the Arab movement in Palestine with the Nazis, engaging in war crimes and sending agents back into the Palestine Mandate to fight the Allies there.
Another legal concern is that the League of Nations decision was to “reconstitute” a Jewish national home, acknowledging the former existence of a Jewish state in history, something that the Arabs never managed to create in all the 1300 years they were occupiers in that part of the Middle East, having conquered it in 638 CE.
I refer to article 147 Roth and you direct me to 49. Please pay attention to what I wrote: violation of the paragraph you cite is not a grave breach of the convention (like Eva, for instance, claims above)
Shorter Green: anyone who disagrees with Israel is politically biased. Anyone who agrees with Israel isn’t. Got it.
Two points: 1. It strains credibility when claims are made that settlement activity is on par with torture, forced deportation, hostage-taking and the willful killing of civilians. This is particularly the case when such claims are made in regard to a state that came into possession of territory in the course of a defensive war against, inter alia, a state (Jordan) which has since renounced any claims to the land in question. 2. To say that settlement in the West Bank is even unlawful is to put the cart before the horse. Any rule regarding settlement in occupied territories must have regard to underlying title, which in this case is anything but settled. There must be an agreement between the relevant parties concerning the boundaries of the state of Israel (and any future Palestinian state) before it even makes sense to suggest that settlement is unlawful because Israel may have a better claim on the land in question than any other people or state. Note that I do not say “has”, but “may have”. But that question can only be settled by agreement. There is no such agreement. Israel has yet to relinquish any claim it has on the West… Read more »
@Allison and Elliott Green: You mention that the territories are not ‘occupied territories’ in the sense of international law. This is a well-known argument of the Israeli government and it has already been answered times and again, most authoritatively by the International Court of Justice in the advisory opinion on the construction of the wall, para. 78.
The definition of occupation from the 1907 Hague Regulations Respecting the Laws and Customs of War on Land refers to military occupation because the drafters at that time thought that situations of occupation would be very temporary. However, the definition of occupaiton in customary international law has evolved and what matters is the situation on the ground, i.e. whether any power exercises control over a territory in such a way that this power actually places the territory under its authority. If Israel decides what goods enter the territory, who is allowed to enter and exit it, etc. that can be an indication of such control.
@Yaniv, please read what I wrote, I mentioned the grave breach under additional protocol I (not ratified by Israel) and not under the GVA conventions.
Eva, we disagree very sharply on the issue of the ICJ at the Hague. I say that it has no moral authority, being a political body, a group of judges appointed by govts, and most of those govts not being very respectful of democracy and human rights or not at all respectful of same. Since the ICJ is a political body, mainly representing govts, many or most of them hostile to the State of Israel, its claim that Judea-Samaria is “occupied” is only to be expected. The ICJ has disregarded the international law status of those territories. Even a judge or a panel of judges cannot adjudicate [or legislate] in an arbitrary fashion. Would you, Eva, accept the judgement of the US Supreme Court in the Dred Scott case? By your standards, you should have accepted that decision when it was issued before the US Civil War. Do you recall what that decision said? Quoting from memory, “The negro has no rights that a white man is bound to respect.” My position is that the ICJ decides according to ethnic & religious bias against Israel, just as the Supreme Court in the Dred Scott may be said to have decided… Read more »
To Green: So, a ruling by the ICJ – which is according to the Charter the principal judicial organ of the UN – is too political to be credible, even if it is one of the rare occasions of unanimity (and includes the vote of the US representative usually not really unfriendly to Israel). On the other hand, the final status is in your opionion conclusively decided by the San Remo Conference [1920], endorsed and spelled out in detail by the League of Nations in 1922, agreed to by the USA in the Anglo-American Convention on Palestine in 1925, and confirmed by the UN charter. How exactly is this process less politicized than an ICJ ruling? Are we to simply just believe that these agreements were not reached on the basis of bias? Israel did agree to be a UN member state, it is therefore bound by its law. Even if the Opinion is just Advisory, this does not mean that its conclusions are not binding: the Opinion as such of course is not binding, but the law contained in it is – as all law is. This has of course nothing to do with Hamas (and others): if they are breaching the… Read more »
To Guy: as to your first point, the San Remo decision, subsequently affirmed by the League of Nations decision, expanded upon the Balfour Declaration to include the phrase “historical connection [connexion in the original]” so that it was based not only on interests, imperial or otherwise (and for sure, not all the countries supporting the “reconstitution” of a Jewish national home in Palestine were empires or colonial powers) but a rational analysis of history and not only law. It wasn’t based on politics or biases but on what was true: only one people could have a national claim on that territory. Moreover, the phrase “non-Jews” is used indicating that all others, Arabs, Muslims, Christians, Europeans, Turks, whatever/whomever, had rights in the country but only personal, civil and religious – not national. Those were reserved for the Jews. And since the local Arab residents did not apply to themselves the sobriquet of “Palestinians” but rather “Southern Syrians” in the early 1920s, how could the world have relaterd to them as “Palestinians”? This is quite clear and has tremendous importance for arriving at a legal outlook on whether Jews could ever be “occupiers” in their country, even if a political or military… Read more »
So, the ICJ ruling is not good because it is politicized, but all the rest you cite is good because it is politicized? I am sorry, I am too dumb to understand where this discission is going. I give up. You win.
Guy, the ICJ ruling is not good because it disregards the international legal status of the Land of Israel [or “Palestine” if you like] which has a history. The ICJ disregards that history and judges falsely and unjustly. I don’t think that there is much to be done –that can be done– to correct the UN system, including the ICJ. Abraham Yeselson and Anthony Gaglione warned used years ago in their book, A Dangerous Place, The United Nations as a Weapon in World Politics [NY 1974], that the UN was about as relevant to peace as a battleship or an atomic bomb. Observers of the UN’s “human rights commission”, now rechristened the “human rights council,” have noted the absurdity of dictatorship-ruled countries sitting on the “human rights council” in judgment of others. To compound the absurdity, the council is dominated by members of the Organization of the Islamic Conference. This is a Muslim interstate body that promotes something called “The Cairo Declaration of Human Rights in Islam.” This Cairo declaration in fact vitiates human rights established in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. True Muslim states adhere to shari`ah law which does not recognize universal human rights or equality,… Read more »
Just a clarification: EGreen notes the Holocaust and the White Paper. I would like to continue that thread as it is relevant to my objection that law is at all times correct.
Not only did that 1939 White Paper restrict immigration and limit land purchases, it altered the terms of the League of Nations Mandate for Palestine by deciding, I quote, “His Majesty’s Government therefore now declare unequivocally that it is not part of their policy that Palestine should become a Jewish State”. Now, one can argue whther that decision was correct or not from the Arab angle but in essence, that policy statement doomed the Jews of Europe. And as we now know, that the Mufti was a Nazi collaborator as early as 1933 and that it was the terror he led that actually convinced the Bbritish to alter the Mandate, illegally as EGreen pointed out, I would put it to you that taking all this into consideration, either the law is an ass, to quote Mr. Bumble, or it has little relevance ot the Arab-Israel conflict, or at worse, interferes on the wrong side.
It seems that even those advocating the illegality of the settlements would have to admit based on the above that it is far from a universally recognized or self evident matter. I believe that that was the question at hand.
Jenny: according to your reasoning, the Shoah and its significance are far from a universally recognized matter – that however does not make it less true.
Yisrael: as to whether the 1920s – with: colonialism, stalinism and racism rampant; Africa, India and other small places like those denied self-determination; no rights for women in most countries; no recognition of social and economical rights; no HR regional bodies… – was really the paradise of decency and honesty you submit, I remain with a few little doubts. As for the dichotomy between legalism and realism, I think international law generally strikes a good balance; it actually depends on how you define them. Legalism is arguably also looking too much at the history and the supposed titles, arbitrarily setting a date (if you go back enough, Italy might actually have a decent title to the whole Mediterranean coasts – why should we stop in the 1800s?). One could actually say that it is more realistic to accept that Judges elected by the only universal organization – to which, again, Israel has freely decided to be a member – are issuing a valid judgment; after all, this is what Judges are appointed to do…
[…] Ku, Are All Israeli Settlements War Crimes? Opinio Juris (Jan. 21, […]
Guy, I understand your logic. But I don’t appreciate being likened to a Holocaust denier. My position was once the conventional position. Indeed, today’s conventional position on these issues has been carefully promoted by various govts and NGOs and press outlets over the years. Just as there is immense documentation on the Holocaust, so there is much documentation to confirm my position. You can go back to Ernest Frankenstein in 1944 in his Justice for My People, esp. pp 81-115. Then there are the Rifkind, Fortas memorandum of 1946; and Carl Friedrich, American Policy toward Palestine [Wash, DC: Public Affairs Press 1944]. Then we may cite as authorities Julius Stone [already cited by Allison], Stephen Schwebel, a State Dept legal advisor. Prof Rostow, et al. KJ Heller mentions that a State Dept legal advisor under Carter [Hansell] gave an opinion that settlements were illegal. But the Carter administration was highly hostile to Israel, and Carter’s recent charges against Israel indicate how very hostile he is and must have been then. In any event, legal advisors during the Reagan administration did not accept Hansell’s opinion and it has not been the official US position since then. Note that Pres. Obama in… Read more »