Bosættelserne er ulovlige ifølge folkeretten, men selv bosættelser, der er ulovlige ifølge Israels egne love, får nu i stigende grad det blå stempel af regeringen og det anses af kritikere for at ødelægge enhver udsigt til fredsløsning med palæstinenserne.
RAMALLAH/TEL AVIV, 14 May 2012 (IRIN): Israeli settlers east of the separation barrier in the central West Bank occupy the land most critical for any future final status agreement under a two-state solution.
But instead of limiting settlement expansion, critics say the Israeli authorities are setting a dangerous precedent by legalizing new outposts and undermining the law.
“God gave us this land 3000 years ago,” an Israeli bus driver said on the way from Jerusalem towards the Israeli settlement of Psagot.
“This land is ours. It is not for the Arabs,” he added, as the bus crossed from Jerusalem into the occupied West Bank, continuing its way through the rocky landscape east of Ramallah.
Psagot is home to about 1.600 Jewish settlers and the seat of the Mateh Binyamin Regional Council, which is one of six councils providing municipal services to more than 300.000 Israelis who live in 124 officially recognized settlements in the West Bank.
While all settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt) are illegal under international law, more than 90 so-called outposts are illegal even under Israeli law.
Living illegally in caravans
One such illegal settlement is Migron, where about 322 Israeli settlers live in caravans on 36 hectares of privately owned Palestinian land.
Migron is one of several cases where the Israeli government has tried to circumvent (omgå) Supreme Court decisions on the evacuation of illegal structures, instead supporting settler interests.
For the first time since 1996, the government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu formally created new settlements this April by legalizing the three outposts of Rechalim, Sansana and Bruchin.
“There is a big change of policy happening,” Talia Sasson, a former Israeli chief-prosecutor who wrote the influential Sasson report on government support for illegal outposts, told IRIN,noting:
“I believe that the price for removing an illegal outpost has become too high to pay, for the Israeli government.”
Holding on at any price
When Netanyahu formed a new unity government with the centrist Kadima party on 8 May, some analysts said this could bring along changes, while Palestinian officials immediately called upon the new government to freeze settlement activity.
But, many warned that settlers were only gaining in strength, holding onto occupied land at any price.
By legalizing the outpost, the government made clear that it neither cares about national, nor about international law. Now, say analysts, state support for settlements and illegal outposts has crossed a point of no return, undermining the rule of law and threatening Israeli democracy.
“What happened around Migron and other outposts is a total earthquake of Israeli constitutional balance,” Dror Etkes, an Israeli expert on land issues in oPt, told IRIN, adding:
“There is a major clash coming up between the government, the settlers and the Supreme Court. By legalizing the outpost, the government made clear that it neither cares about national, nor about international law.”
Endangers any future solution
The government had asked the Supreme Court to delay Migron’s demolition for three years, which the court rejected, and tried to delay the implementation of another court decision on the demolition (nedrivning) of the illegal Ulpana neighbourhood in the Beit El settlement.
Efforts are reportedly under way to pass a bill to retroactively (med tilbagevirkende kraft) legalize Ulpana. This would force the Supreme Court to declare the law unconstitutional.
Experts say legalization of settlements endangers any future solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict under the terms of a two-state solution.
“Nineteen years after Oslo and 13 years after a final settlement was supposed to be reached, prospects for a two-state solution are as dim (fjerne) as ever,” the International Crisis Group (ICG) said in a recent report which called for a new paradigm.
Migron “compromise”
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http://www.irinnews.org/Report/95445/Analysis-Israeli-government-challenges-the-law-to-embrace-illegal-settler-outposts
