Nadene Goldfoot
What are the Palestinian lands that are being settled by Jews? The Palestinian leadership had been offered their own state back in 1947 when Israel was offered theirs. In fact, Israel was promised their own homeland way before that which was including the “West Bank” (Judea and Samaria) which had originally been the Jewish Homeland, but the Palestinians rejected their offer, and kept rejecting it in years thereafter. The English had cut off 80% of what was to become Israel and it was instead offered to the Arabs.
The Jews did not come into the West Bank again until the 1967 Six Day War when Israel was attacked by Jordan, Egypt and Syria, and surprising everyone, won the battle. That meant that Israel had the opportunity to take back East Jerusalem and unite it with the rest of the city under one mayor. They did not move anyone out in doing so.
No Palestinians were moved out of Judea and Samaria. Jews did move there. It so happens that many families had been living there before 1948, like in Hebron, and were attacked, killed and forced to flee for their lives, so now Jews have moved back again. If Palestine is ever created, they plan to have no Jews living there at all.
Israel does patrol Judea and Samaria to keep people safe, as the Palestinians are known to attack Jewish communities.
The Arabs refused to take their land every time it was offered, therefore there is no Palestinian land as yet, or may never come about at this rate. They refuse to sit down and discuss terms with Israel. For 64 years the land has remained "Occupied Territory" of Judea and Samaria. There is no reason why Jews cannot build homes there except that the world community refuses to accept this fact..
For the sake of peace with the Arabs,Israel left the Sinai in 1979 and disbanded 18 settlements. Israel left Gaza in 2005 and disbanded 21 settlements. Israel left the area in Judea and Samaria in 2005 disbanding 4 settlements we deemed illegal. Israel turned over the area to the Palestinian Authority to govern all civil situations but maintains the right of security enforcement there.
The position of successive Israeli governments is that all authorized settlements are entirely legal and consistent with international law.In practice, Israel does not accept that the Fourth Geneva Convention applies de jure, but has stated that on humanitarian issues it will govern itself de facto by its provisions, without specifying which these are. The scholar and jurist Eugene Rostow has disputed the illegality of authorized settlements.
Under Israeli law, West Bank (Judea Samaria) settlements must meet specific criteria to be legal. In 2009, there were approximately 100 small communities that did not meet these criteria and are referred to as illegal outposts.
According to the Oslo accords of the 4th Geneva convention, both Israel and the Palestinian Arabs were barred from changing their status quo but both have built. International law is listened to, but is not THE law of the land.
While 164 nations call the West Bank- Occupied Palestinian Territory, “the government of Israel holds that only territories captured in war from “an established and recognized sovereign” should be considered occupied territories.” In my opinion, this would act as a deterrent for further attacks on a country. They cannot just attack and get away with it without paying the price. This is what these 164 nations are trying to allow: no penalty for attacking Israel in the 1967 War.
Resource: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Bank
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_settlement
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