It is widely accepted that under international law, the Jewish settlements in the territories occupied by Israel in 1967 are illegal. Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the protection of civilian persons in time of war states: ‘The occupying power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own population into the territories it occupies.’ Within the international community the overwhelming view is that Article 49 is applicable to the occupation of the West Bank including East Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip and the Golan Heights…Israel is a party to the Geneva Conventions, and bound by its obligations.But its government argues that the international conventions relating to occupied land do not apply to the Palestinian territories because they were not under the legitimate sovereignty of any state in the first place…Israel therefore denies the formal, de jure, applicability of the 4th Geneva Convention in the occupied territories.
So Israel argues that no Palestinian state existed in 1967, and despite the recent UN General Assembly vote, neither does it exist today. What does exist, however, are the Oslo Accords negotiated between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA) as the “sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people.” Under the Accords, the issue of settlements was to be decided in the permanent status negotiations. None of the agreements signed between the parties contain any limitation on building by the parties in the areas under their respective jurisdictions.
