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Occupation magazine - Settlements Home page  back Print  Send To friend Israeli settlements as a limitation to the two-state approach Verena J. Nitschke Israeli settlements as a limitation to the two-state approach 1. Introduction Israeli governments have been constructing more and more settlements on Palestinian territories in the West Bank and in East Jerusalem ever since the beginning of the occupation. Israel has taken control over the Palestinian territories during the six-day-war in June 1967, in which it conquered the West Bank as well as East Jerusalem. From that point on, Israel began to constantly construct outposts and settlements. Building permanent settlements in occupied territory is illegal under international law,1 but nevertheless, by 2014, there were approximately 556.000 Israeli settlers living in 150 settlements and 100 outposts in the West Bank.2 These constructions have certain political, economic and social impacts on the situation in the Middle East. This paper is going to focus on the humanitarian and political effects of the Israeli settlement policy, evaluating especially the impact it has on the two-state approach. Due to its effect on the two-state approach, the settlement policy of Israel is not only relevant for the Palestinians whose human rights are restricted, but also for the whole international community and especially the states in the Middle East. The situation in the Middle East and the inter-state relations have an immense impact on international security as well as on the living conditions under occupation in the Palestinian territories. A solution for the conflict between Israel and Palestine, and thus a peaceful co-existence, can only be achieved, if either the one-state approach or the two-state approach will be accepted, adopted and established. The one-state solution would result in both nationalities, Israelis and Palestinians, living peacefully together in one territory, whereas the two-state approach concludes in two separate states, existing independently but peacefully next to each other. 1 “Geneva Convention (IV) Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War,” International Committee of the Red Cross, August 12, 1949, accessed December 14, 2015, https://www.icrc.org/applic/ihl/ihl.nsf/Article.xsp?action=openDocument&documentId=77068F12B8 857C4DC12563CD0051BDB0. 2 “Humanitarian Atlas,” United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, 2015, accessed December 15, 2015, http://www.ochaopt.org/documents/atlas_2015_web.pdf. “The Humanitarian Impact on Palestinians of Israeli Settlements and other Infrastructure in the West Bank,” United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, July 2015, accessed December 15, 2015, https://www.ochaopt.org/documents/thehumanitarianimpactofisraeliinfrastructurethewestbank_intro.p df. 4 The main research question shall therefore be: “To what extent is the Israeli government restricting the two-state approach with their settlement policy?”, evaluating the possibility for the implementation of the two-state solution with reference to the settlement policy of Israel. Consequently, the paper will first answer the sub-question: “What are Israeli settlements and how have they developed until today?” and then concentrate on the second sub-question: “To what extent are settlements illegal under international law?”, followed by the last sub-question: “What are the effects of the Israeli settlement policy?”. According to the sub-questions the research paper will be split up into various chapters. Therefore, the first chapter will provide a definition of settlements, an explanation of how settlements develop as well as an overview of the current situation in the occupied Palestinian territories (oPt) concerning the Israeli settlements. The second chapter will focus on the legal basis of settlements in general and apply international as well as Israeli law on the settlement policy. Subsequently the third question deals with the effects of these illegal settlements and concentrates in particular on the impact the Israeli settlement policy has on political approaches such as the two-state solution. In the end, the conclusion will link back to the general question, evaluating the results of the previous three chapters. 2. Israeli Settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem Settlements are Israeli civilian communities that are constructed illegally by Israeli citizens under the tolerance and usually even assistance of the Israeli state on the Palestinian territories which is occupied since the six-day war in 1967.3 The construction of a new settlement usually begins with so-called ‘outposts’, settlements that are built without the official authorization of the government.4 This usually means that containers are set up under false pretences and then get integrated into the surrounding infrastructure bit by bit. Once it is connected to the water and electricity network, fences, walls and checkpoints are built, and more and more settlers move to the new settlement. The centre of a settlement, surrounded by a security area that is supervised by Israeli military, embraces 3 “Settlements 101,” Americans for Peace Now, accessed December 15, 2015, http://archive.peacenow.org/settlements-101.html. 4 Eyal Hareuveni, “By Hook and By Crook Israeli Settlement Policy in the West Bank,” B’Tselem, July 2010: 13, accessed December 15, 2015, http://www.btselem.org/download/201007_by_hook_and_by_crook_eng.pdf. 5 the work, accommodation and supply units for the whole settlement, which makes some scholars refer to them as ‘gated communities’.5 In order to understand why settlements are constructed in the first place, different aspects have to be taken into consideration. First of all, there are ideological reasons, that is to say religious Jews believe that the land in this area rightfully belongs to them. Another main reason and usually the argumentation used by the Israeli government to justify settlements is the security question. Settlements are built close to border areas to make Israel more defensible.6 The Israeli settlement policy would not work out without settlers who are willing to live in those ‘gated communities’. Next to the Jews who move to these areas because they claim that they are the people supposed to live on the ‘Holy Land’, Israelis move to settlements because they are supported by the state.7 Housing and affording a high living standard are cheaper in settlements than in the rest of Israel and settlers benefit from a better education system as well as subventions concerning tax, industry and agriculture.8 Settlements started to emerge right after the occupation began in 1967 and has continued until today. While the settlements were removed from Sinai in 1979 and from Gaza in 2005, construction in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights still continue. Today there are approximately 556.000 Israeli settlers living illegally in 150 settlements and 100 outposts in the oPt. Whether they are small villages or large cities, they contribute to a contiguous area under Israeli civil law, leaving Palestine to isolated enclaves.9 5 Ariel Handel, “Gated/gating community: The settlement complex in the west bank,” Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 39, no. 4 (2014): 504-17, accessed December 15, 2015, http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com.proxy-ub.rug.nl/doi/10.1111/tran.12045/epdf. 6 “The Humanitarian Impact on Palestinians of Israeli Settlements and other Infrastructure in the West Bank,” United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, July 2015: 16, accessed December 15, 2015, https://www.ochaopt.org/documents/thehumanitarianimpactofisraeliinfrastructurethewestbank_intro.p df. 7 “A/HRC/28/44 Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and in the Occupied Syrian Golan - Report of the Secretary-General,” United Nations Human Rights Council, March 9, 2015: 14, accessed December 16, 2015, http://daccess-ddsny. un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G15/045/37/PDF/G1504537.pdf?OpenElement. 8 Eyal Hareuveni, “By Hook and By Crook Israeli Settlement Policy in the West Bank,” B’Tselem, July 2010: 40-44, accessed December 15, 2015, http://www.btselem.org/download/201007_by_hook_and_by_crook_eng.pdf. 9 Gershom Gorenberg, “A Guide to Israeli Settlements,” Los Angeles Times, June 28, 2009, accessed December 16, 2015, http://articles.latimes.com/2009/jun/28/opinion/oe-gorenberg28. 6 3. Legality With the intention to understand how the settlement policy of Israel can have such immense consequences for the Palestinians, this chapter will explore the legal aspect of settlements and outposts. When talking about the occupied Palestinian territories (oPt), it is usually being referred to the area beyond the Green Line; the armistice line of 1949. Settlements are officially all kinds of constructions that are built within this border. But the oPt are themselves being divided into different areas. Since the Oslo agreement of 1995, which had the establishment of stable circumstances for a future Palestinian state as its aim, the oPt has been split up into three different autonomy areas. The West Bank therefore consists of Area A, which lies under full Palestinian authority and makes up about 17,2% of the territory, Area B, approximately 23,8% of the territory, in which the Palestinian authorities only have civil control, but the Israeli authorities remain in charge of the military and security rule, and the rest of the West Bank, around 59%, the so-called Area C, which is under complete Israeli rule.10 In the latter, it is usually very complicated if not impossible for Palestinians to get any permission for constructions, while the Israeli government keeps supporting settlers to spread in this territory. Since the construction of outposts is illegal even under Israeli law,11 the governments do not openly encourage this dispersion, but according to studies on settlements, Israeli agencies still support these constructions. “Settlements built (…) with no Government authorization (outposts) were established with the ‘full knowledge of all [authorities], starting with the government ministers and prime minister, and until the lowest enforcing agencies (...) the denial had but one goal only: to withstand criticism by various factors, mostly international’”.12 In order to avoid further complications, concerning accusations of Israel by the international community, that firstly the Israeli government knew about the outposts and 10 “Fragmenting Palestine: Formulas for Partition since the British Mandate,” Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs (PASSIA), May 2013: 18, accessed December 15, 2015, http://www.passia.org/publications/bulletins/Partition/Partition_Plan1792013.pdf. 11 “Settlements 101,” Americans for Peace Now, accessed December 15, 2015, http://archive.peacenow.org/settlements-101.html. 12 “Report of the Independent International Fact-finding Mission to Investigate the Implications of the Israeli Settlements on the Civil, Political, Economic, Social and Cultural Rights of the Palestinian People throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem,” United Nations Human Rights Council, accessed December 15, 2015: 7, http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/HRCouncil/RegularSession/Session19/FFM/FFMSettle ments.pdf. 7 secondly even supported them; regularly authorises outposts.13 Thereby it officially declares them legal settlements under Israeli law and justifies them facing the rest of the world. According to international law though, settlements remain illegal, even if the Israeli authorities approved them. There are numerous international agreements that state Israeli settlements illegal, such as the Fourth Geneva Convention and an advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice (ICJ). But first of all, Israel, as a member to the United Nations (UN), is bound to various “social, economic, cultural, civil and political human rights of all persons within its jurisdiction”,14 which includes the Palestinian people living under the Israeli occupation and are mostly bound by Israeli law. In accordance with the settlement policy of the last decades, Palestinian citizens are being denied some basic human rights, such as their right to free movement, their access to water and their right to adequate housing.15 Furthermore, the Israeli government infringes Paragraph 6 of Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention from 1949, ratified by Israel on the 6th of July 1951, that says that “the Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies”.16 Thereby it is explicitly forbidden for Israel, the Occupying Power, to let citizens of their own population move to Palestine, the territory it occupies. Next to this Convention, the International Court of Justice announced in an advisory opinion of 2004, that 13 “Fragmenting Palestine: Formulas for Partition since the British Mandate,” Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs (PASSIA), May 2013, accessed December 15, 2015, http://www.passia.org/publications/bulletins/Partition/Partition_Plan1792013.pdf. 14 “Report of the Independent International Fact-finding Mission to Investigate the Implications of the Israeli Settlements on the Civil, Political, Economic, Social and Cultural Rights of the Palestinian People throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem,” United Nations Human Rights Council, accessed December 15, 2015: 4, http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/HRCouncil/RegularSession/Session19/FFM/FFMSettle ments.pdf. 15 “A/HRC/25/38 Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and in the Occupied Syrian Golan - Report of the Secretary-General,” United Nations Human Rights Council, February 12, 2014, accessed December 16, 2015, http://daccess-ddsny. un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G14/109/03/PDF/G1410903.pdf?OpenElement. “A/HRC/22/63 Report of the Independent International Fact- Finding Mission to Investigate the Implications of the Israeli Settlements on the Civil, Political, Economic, Social and Cultural Rights of the Palestinian People throughout the Occupied Palestinia,” United Nations Human Rights Council, February 7, 2013, accessed December 16, 2015, http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/HRCouncil/RegularSession/Session22/A-HRC-22- 63_en.pdf. 16 “Geneva Convention (IV) Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War,” International Committee of the Red Cross, August 12, 1949, accessed December 14, 2015, https://www.icrc.org/applic/ihl/ihl.nsf/Article.xsp?action=openDocument&documentId=77068F12B8 857C4DC12563CD0051BDB0. 8 the construction of the separation barrier as well as the continued expansion of settlements are changing the demographic composition of Palestine permanently and are therefore illegal.17 These rulings were reaffirmed in resolution 22/26 of the Human Rights Council, published in 2013. In this resolution it has been put on record that the Commission of Human Rights, the Human Rights Council, the Security Council as well as the General Assembly confirm the illegality of Israeli settlements. It relies on the Geneva Convention and the advisory opinion to support its claim and also mentions a conclusion of the Council of the European Union on the Middle East Process from 2009, that declares the barrier and the settlements illegal, because they are built mainly on the oPt. By breaching international law, they therefore constitute a threat to peace and the two-state-solution.18 4. Impact of settlements Despite the fact that the international community has continued to pressure Israel to stop the expansion of settlements and even the commitment of the Israeli government to freeze all settlement construction in accordance with several peace talks, Israel continues to expand and even build up new settlements.19 Furthermore the amount of settlers in the oPt even doubled “between 1993 and 2009”.20 The following chapter is going to examine which consequences this policy has, concerning the humanitarian effect, but also the impact on the peace process and thereby on the two-state-solution. Part of the Palestinian population is being denied several basic human rights in their daily life. Many people are limited in their freedom of movement and their right to self-determination. 17 “A/67/375 Report of the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories: Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem,” United Nations Human Rights Council, September 18, 2012, accessed December 16, 2015, http://daccess-ddsny. un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N12/512/28/PDF/N1251228.pdf?OpenElement. 18 “A/HRC/RES/22/26 Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and in the Occupied Syrian Golan,” United Nations Human Rights Council, April 12, 2013, accessed December 16, 2015, http://daccess-ddsny. un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G13/129/60/PDF/G1312960.pdf?OpenElement. 19 “A/HRC/25/38 Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and in the Occupied Syrian Golan - Report of the Secretary-General,” United Nations Human Rights Council, February 12, 2014: 4, accessed December 16, 2015, http://daccess-ddsny. un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G14/109/03/PDF/G1410903.pdf?OpenElement. Eyal Hareuveni, “By Hook and By Crook Israeli Settlement Policy in the West Bank,” B’Tselem, July 2010: 17, accessed December 15, 2015, http://www.btselem.org/download/201007_by_hook_and_by_crook_eng.pdf. 20 Leila Farsakh, “The One-State Solution and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Palestinian Challenges and Prospects,” Middle East Journal 65, no. 1 (Winter 2011): 55, accessed December 15, 2015, http://www.jstor.org.proxy-ub.rug.nl/stable/23012093?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents. 9 When the construction of the separation barrier started in 2003, it was for security reasons and supposed to happen along the Green Line that was agreed upon during Oslo. But in reality, the wall proceeds for 85% on the oPt and thereby encloses most settlements.21 In many aspects the Palestinian population suffers from the “separation wall that cuts into Palestinian land in the West Bank and once completed would incorporate 11.5% of it into Israel”.22 Even though it mainly results in Israeli settlers still living on occupied territory, but on the ‘right’ side of the wall, it also encompasses many Palestinian living on the ‘wrong’ side of the wall. These Palestinians are unable to freely reach their schools, work, hospitals, land and are cut off from their family and neighbourhood. Their movement is not only restricted by the wall and the settlements, but also by the by-pass roads, which “link Jewish settlements to military camps and to Israel property (…) circumventing built-up Palestinian areas”.23 All this infrastructure divides Palestine into fragments and disconnects Palestinian areas from each other. Next to this, the Palestinian population suffers from their limited right to self-determination. According to a report of the General Assembly of the United Nations, the right to selfdetermination includes “the right to have a demographic and territorial presence and the right to permanent sovereignty over natural resources”.24 One possibility to acknowledge the Palestinians these rights would be the long discussed and negotiated two-state-solution, that would result in a coherent, sovereign Palestinian state next to Israel. But this solution is being strongly limited, if not completely made impossible, by the already existing and ongoing settlement construction.25 One way in which the settlements effect a future Palestine, simply is the territory that is taken away from the Palestinians by settlements and Israeli infrastructure, that make up 21 “World Report Events 2014,” Human Rights Watch, 2015, accessed December 15, 2015: 314, https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/wr2015_web.pdf. 22 Leila Farsakh, “The One-State Solution and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Palestinian Challenges and Prospects,” Middle East Journal 65, no. 1 (Winter 2011): 55, accessed December 15, 2015, http://www.jstor.org.proxy-ub.rug.nl/stable/23012093?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents. 23 Jad Isaac, and Majed Rizik, “The Viability of the Palestinian State and Israel`s Settlement Policy,” Palestine-Israel Journal of Politics, Economics & Culture 9, no. 4, 12 (2002): 76, http://web.b.ebscohost.com.proxy-ub.rug.nl/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=9beb7f02-88f6-45ca- 840f-cdd33ad92548%40sessionmgr115&vid=1&hid=116. 24 “A/67/375 Report of the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories: Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem,” United Nations Human Rights Council, September 18, 2012: 10, accessed December 16, 2015, http://daccess-ddsny. un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N12/512/28/PDF/N1251228.pdf?OpenElement. 25 “A/HRC/RES/22/26 Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and in the Occupied Syrian Golan,” United Nations Human Rights Council, April 12, 2013, accessed December 16, 2015, http://daccess-ddsny. un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G13/129/60/PDF/G1312960.pdf?OpenElement. 10 approximately 43% of the West Bank.26 With every new settlement, more territory is occupied and Palestinians are being moved forcefully. They often face demolitions of their housing and are being deported only so that settlements can spread and take over more and more territory.27 Currently, around 21% of settlements are being built on private land, owned by Palestinians.28 Israel justifies the demolitions, because the buildings concerned are often constructed without any official permission. Only 1% of Area C is planned to be covered with Palestinian constructions, wherefore around 95% of the permits are being denied, which force Palestinians to illegally build houses and other infrastructure, always under the threat of demolition by Israeli forces.29 Another loss that Palestinians face due to Israeli settlements and would be a basic need for their own sovereign state is the access to natural resources. This includes their right to use their agricultural land as well as the access to water. As mentioned before, the Palestinians are restricted in their movement by the separation barrier, but also by the settlements themselves, checkpoints and other Israeli infrastructure. Their agricultural land is either taken away from them directly, or they are denied the access to their own land. In order to have access to this land or other facilities that are essential for an adequate standard of living, they need to accept long detours and pass Israeli checkpoints, which can close and open at any time. Therefore, they are completely dependent on the Israeli forces. Besides the access to land, Palestinians do not have the sovereignty over water supplies in the West Bank. The permits that are not given to them concerning construction in Area C, include the drilling of wells. Moreover, around 70% of the Palestinian population in Area C is not connected to the water network.30 Israel remains in control of the areas that include most of the natural water resources, areas around the sea of Galilee and the Jordan river, and keeps on building settlements strategically close to water springs. As soon as the settlers drill wells 26 “The Humanitarian Impact of Israeli Settlement Policies,” United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, December 2012, accessed December 16, 2015, http://www.ochaopt.org/documents/ocha_opt_settlements_factsheet_december_2012_english.pdf. 27 Tal Dahan, “Situation Report: The State of Human Rights in Israel and the OPT,” The Association for Civil Rights in Israel, December 2014: 89, accessed December 15, 2015, http://www.acri.org.il/en/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Situation-Report-2014.pdf. 28 Eyal Hareuveni, “By Hook and By Crook Israeli Settlement Policy in the West Bank,” B’Tselem, July 2010: 5, accessed December 15, 2015, http://www.btselem.org/download/201007_by_hook_and_by_crook_eng.pdf. 29 Nir Shalev, and Alon Cohen-Lifshitz, “The Prohibited Zone: Israeli Planning Policy in the Palestinian Villages in Area C,” Bimkom – Planners for Planning Rights, June 2008, accessed December 16, 2015, http://bimkom.org/eng/wp-content/uploads/ProhibitedZone.pdf. 30 “Area C of the West Bank: Humanitarian Concerns,” United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, August 2014, accessed December 16, 2015, http://www.ochaopt.org/documents/ocha_opt_area_c_factsheet_august_2014_english.pdf. 11 deeper than the ones of the Palestinians on the other side of the fence, the latter suffer water shortages. The water consumption of Israelis and especially settlers is six times higher than that of the Palestinians.31 Therefore, by limiting the Palestinian right to self-determination, the Israeli settlement policy restricts the two-state solution. Once this theory has become more acknowledged by many scholars, ideas about other political approaches that cope with the existing settlements arose. One of these is the bi-national one-state solution, which “would allow each (nation) to have an independent state, while providing both with full access to the disputed land”.32 5. Conclusion This paper has explored to what extent the Israeli settlement policy influences the lives of the Palestinian population as well as the hope for peace, or more explicitly speaking the possibility of a two-state-solution. It has been shown, that the Palestinians are being denied several rights that are the basis for a feasible, independent and coherent state. By further expanding settlements, the possible future Palestinian state only consists of incoherent enclaves, where the citizens are not able to reach territory of their own state without passing Israeli territory and thereby being completely dependent on the Israeli forces. According to As’ad Ghanem, the Israeli government “would in fact be burying the two state solution”, if it continues the construction of the barrier and the expansion of settlements.33 The peace negotiations since the 1990s have all been based on the two-state solution which was accepted for the first time by both Israel and the Palestinian authorities in the Oslo Accords of 1993. Due to the fact that the ongoing settlement policy of Israel is making a viable and contiguous Palestinian state more and more unlikely, the two-state approach is also being pushed into the background. Consequently, the one-state solution becomes more popular and several scholars have been discussing this approach recently. Nevertheless, a detailed plan or ideas on how a united state, with the Israeli and the Palestinian nation living peacefully together should look like, has not been established.34 31 “The Humanitarian Impact of Israeli Settlement Policies,” United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, December 2012, accessed December 16, 2015, http://www.ochaopt.org/documents/ocha_opt_settlements_factsheet_december_2012_english.pdf. 32 Natan Witkin, “The interspersed nation-state system: A Two-State/One-land Solution for the Israeli- Palestinian Conflict,” Middle East Journal 65, no. 1 (2011): 32, http://www.jstor.org.proxyub. rug.nl/stable/23012092?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents. 33 As’ad Ghanem, “The Bi-national State Solution” Israel Studies 14, no. 2 (2009): 125, http://www.jstor.org.proxy-ub.rug.nl/stable/30245857?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents. 34 Ghada Karmi, “The One-state Solution: An Alternative Vision for Israeli-Palestinian Peace,” Journal of Palestine Studies 40, no. 2 (2011): 62, http://www.jstor.org.proxyub. rug.nl/stable/pdfplus/10.1525/jps.2011.XL.2.62.pdf?acceptTC=true&jpdConfirm=true. 12 6. 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Links to the latest articles in this section Palestinian killed while protesting settlement expansion Netanyahu repeatedly dismisses US objections to building beyond Green Line ‘The settlers brought caravans and put them on a hill next to us’