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International Legal Expert: Criticism of Knesset's Settlement Law Is Unwarranted
(Algemeiner) Barney Breen-Portnoy - Criticism of the settlement law passed by the Israeli parliament earlier this week is unwarranted, Dr. Eugene Kontorovich, professor at Northwestern University's Pritzker School of Law, said Wednesday. "It does not violate international law. There has never been a principle of international law that one cannot take property with compensation." "It's very unusual that an occupying power offers compensation. But in the cases where they have - and one can point to Turkey and Northern Cyprus, and Russia and Crimea - the international community never criticized this even a little bit. Basically, this is a rule that...was invented for this case and will never be used again." Kontorovich said the law sought "to solve a situation in which, over several decades, over one thousand Israeli homes in West Bank settlements have been built in open areas to which Palestinians subsequently asserted property claims, typically based on broad give-aways of state land by the King of Jordan during the Hashemite occupation (1949-67). The plots are generally open, uncultivated fields. The frequently used characterization of 'private Palestinian lands' is misleading. In the overwhelming majority of cases, no individual Palestinians have come forward to claim the lands."