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Official U.S. Position: Settlements Are Not Illegal

(The American Thinker/RealClearPolitics) Richard Baehr - Jewish settlements can be criticized on political grounds, but not legal ones. The official American position has always been that while they may be a political hurdle to a peace agreement, they are not illegal. The Jewish settlement activity that has occurred since 1967 has been in lands that were captured in a defensive war. The settlers who moved into these areas did so voluntarily, not involuntarily, and it is involuntary population transfers which are prohibited in the Geneva Accords. In the Jerusalem area, some Jews purchased their property directly from Arabs. The same journalists who point out the number of Jewish settlers in the West Bank and Gaza never mention that Arabs and other non-Jews are now well over a million in number and comprise over 20% of the population of pre-1967 Israel. Dennis Ross, in his exhaustive study of the Oslo peace process, has made clear that while settlement building did not make things easier for him from a diplomatic perspective, Israel did not violate any of the Oslo agreements by expanding some settlements during these years.
2005-04-15 00:00:00
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