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The Baseless Hatred of the EU towards Israel

(MelaniePhillips.com) Melanie Phillips - There is consternation in Israel over the EU's malicious decision to boycott individuals or institutions situated over the "Green Line" between Israel and the disputed territories. This would presumably include boycotting the Hebrew University which is just over that line or Jewish residents in Jerusalem's Old City - where ancient Jewish settlement far predated the arrival of a single Arab, dating as it does since King David who built it as the capital of the kingdom of the Jewish people. The EU says Israeli settlements beyond the Green Line are illegal under international law. But they are simply wrong. The charge totally ignores the treaties that gave the Jews the right to settle anywhere in these territories. Article 6 of the Palestine Mandate signed by the League of Nations in 1922 stipulated "close Jewish settlement" on the land west of the Jordan River. That Mandate treaty has never been abrogated and endures today. The main argument mounted by the "illegalizers" rests on their claim that Israeli settlements breach Article 49 of the Geneva Convention. But this article does not apply to the settlements. It says: "The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies." But none of the Israelis living beyond the Green Line has been transferred or deported, forcibly or not; they all chose voluntarily to live there. Moreover, the areas in question never belonged to any other sovereign power. They constitute a no-man's land, having never been allocated to any sovereign state. Furthermore, Israel's "occupation" of these areas is legal since it gained them in a war of self-defense in 1967, and is thus legally entitled to hold onto them until the belligerents stop waging war upon it. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2013-07-18 00:00:00
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