Tag: Israel’s military occupation of the West Bank

On the 8th Anniversary of the International Court of Justice Advisory Opinion of The Wall – Israel is openly discussing annexation of the West Bank

Today is the 8th anniversary of the International Court of Justice’s Advisory Opinion of the Wall — declaring it illegal, and noting that the West Bank [including East Jerusalem] is under an Israeli military occupation.

The Wall is being extended in the Jerusalem area, particularly around Atarot [which Ehud Olmert reportedly offered to Mahmoud Abbas, along with Qalandia Airport, in September 2008].

Israel is also rushing to complete another wall on its border with Egypt, and is contemplating other walls on the northern border as well…and Israel’s current Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyanu has apparently asked a committee, another committee, to study the possibility of a wall along the Jordan River…

Also today, on this 8th anniversary, Israeli media have reported that an Israeli committee headed by retired Israeli Supreme Court judge Edmond Levy, and appointed by Prime Minister Netanyahu to investigate the legality of building settlement outposts in the West Bank, determined that construction in the occupied territory is not illegal — because, it says,  the West Bank is not occupied.

It is indisputably true that, as the New York Times says the Levy Report argues, “the outposts now deemed unauthorized were established with the knowledge and encouragement of Israel’s most senior government echelons”. The Levy Committee therefore concluded that “this amounted to ‘implied agreement’.” [i.e. = implied agreement of the Israeli government and/or its senior officials]. The NYTimes piece is published here.

Continue reading On the 8th Anniversary of the International Court of Justice Advisory Opinion of The Wall – Israel is openly discussing annexation of the West Bank

What does it mean to live under military occupation?

From a report on the BBC from Nablus in the northern West Bank:

” ‘They come any time they want, in the morning, or in the middle of the night. It scares us’. says Mr Nasif. ‘Sometimes they stay for a night, sometimes for weeks. They use anything they want. They have used my bed, my children’s beds, the bathrooms, the gas, electricity – everything’.

On one occasion, the soldiers took photographs of themselves camped in Mr Nasif’s living room and sent the pictures to an Israeli magazine. When they next raided Nablus, they gave Mr Nasif a copy of the magazine. In total, 22 members of Mr Nasif’s family live in the house. They include his five children and 73-year-old mother. ‘I don’t know what to do, or who to speak to, or where to take my family. Me and my brothers spent all our money building this house, but we are not safe’
…

‘When I ask the soldiers to leave us alone, they say I should tell people to stop planning bombings in Israel, but I say it’s nothing to do with me. I have done nothing wrong to the state of Israel. We don’t deserve this’, he says.

Mr Nasif says he has written letters of complaint to the offices of Israeli politicians, but never had a reply.

He said he also sent a letter to the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat asking him to help and complaining to him of the damage the soldiers had caused to his house. Mr Arafat sent him a cheque for $150 (£75) to make repairs.

As to its use of Mr Nasif’s house in incursions, the Israeli army says it cannot comment on its operations”.

This BBC report is posted here .