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The Hysteria over the Israeli Land Announcement
(Commentary) Eugene Kontorovich - Israel's declaration of certain open, uncultivated areas near the 1949 Armistice Line as "state land" has been widely mischaracterized as an "appropriation" of private Palestinian land, and a promotion of settlement activity. It is neither. A determination that land is "state land" is a factual, administrative finding that does not change the ownership of land. An "appropriation" involves taking something that is someone's. A designation of land as "state land" requires a determination, based on extensive investigation, that it does not have a private owner. The determination can be challenged administratively and judicially, as Palestinian claimants often do, and sometimes prevail. Nothing has been taken from anyone. The hysteria over this announcement reflects how detached discussions of "illegal settlements" are from international law. The entire legal argument against settlements rests on one sentence of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which prohibits an "occupying power" to "deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population" into the territory it occupies. Israel also announced this week the construction of thousands of housing units in eastern Jerusalem for Arab Israelis. If the Geneva Convention indeed forbids building apartments in occupied territory for one's nationals, Arab Israelis are part of Israel's "civilian population." Yet on this action, the international community was silent. Apparently, moving people is illegal settlement activity only when it involves Jews.