Are Israeli Settlements Legal? Electronic Intifada’s Ali Abunimah vs. Commentary’s Jonathan Tobin

[shira]

16. The Palestinians don't have legal sovereignty either. And Jews do have rights to settlement...

....as per LoN rulings, and later the UN, which adopted LoN rulings.

The 1948 green line is an armistice line, not a border. That was made very clear at the time.

Jordan's ethnic cleansing of all Jews b/w 1948-67 in that area (before that, Jews had lived there thousands of years) is not a legal basis for Palestinian sovereignty over all historic Judea/Samaria. Nor can ethnic cleansing be used legally to deny Jewish settlement in that area.

Oslo stipulates settlement building can continue in area 'C', so it is not a violation of Oslo. Not only did the PLO agree to this, but so did the USA, UK, France, the EU, Russia, Egypt, and Jordan. Since all these signatories to Oslo agreed Israel could still build in area 'C', what does that say about the illegality of settlement building according to International Law? Besides, Israel went beyond Oslo just shortly after and stopped building NEW settlements; instead choosing only to build within EXISTING settlement blocs. There have been no new settlements outside existing blocs since the mid 90's.

Almost all settlements are on public state land, not privately owned (Palestinian) land.

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Legal or not, Israel has already agreed to a Palestinian state based on negotiated land swaps. Israel has already agreed to dismantle settlements for peace. The biggest issue, and Tobin for all his rightwingery is right about this one, is that the Palestinians consider ALL Israel to be a settlement. From Tel Aviv to Haifa, to Eilat. THAT is the main obstacle to peace, not settlements.