Challenger
Gold Member
I feel a RoccoR moment coming over me....and back in the room....fun though reading this "map war" is, sadly it’s irrelevant to the OP.
The OP states, “The EU is establishing facts on the ground in the West Bank, building hundreds of illegal structures near Ma'ale Adumim and E1 which the government does not remove because it does not want a diplomatic tangle with the Europeans, according to a report released by Regavim.”
OK, let’s look at the legality of these EU structures. I asked earlier for clarification on area C, which I think we can all agree is territory occupied by Israel since 1967 and over which Israel has control. However, Oslo accords or no Oslo accords, Israel does not have sovereignty over this area nor has it formally annexed the area (an illegal act in any event). This makes Israel an occupying power as defined by The Hague convention of 1907 subsequently incorporated into the Geneva Conventions (IV).
Still with me? Under both The Hague and Geneva conventions an occupying power must, “...ensure, as far as possible, public order and safety, while respecting, unless absolutely prevented, the laws in force in the country” (article 43 Hague)
Basically this means that Israeli law does not necessarily apply in the occupied territories so how can these structures be “illegal”?
Well we can perhaps spend a lot of time and energy debating the status of Palestine between 1948 and 1967 yet again, but to save us all the bother, ultimately the laws that applied in area C between 1948 and 1967 whatever its status, were either Jordanian (Planning Law Number 79) or British (The Town and Country Planning Law 1945).
It may come as a surprise to some that the Zionist Occupation Forces recognise (and often abuse) the Jordanian legal system within the occupied territories of Palestine, which means that the law that applies in any building and construction work is the Jordanian Planning Law number 79 of 1966
In a nutshell, this law requires any development plans to be prepared, approved, and kept up to date by local authorities and construction permits may be refused if a development conflicts with the local plan; penalties for unpermitted development may include, in extreme cases, demolition. The law provides for a High Planning Council advised by a Central Planning Department which would prepare and approve 'regional' plans, and local municipalities or groups of villages would prepare 'outline' and 'detailed' plans, to be approved by the High Planning Council and District Commission, respectively. All of these institutions exist within the PA.
Consequently as a) The EU does not recognise the Zionist Occupation of Palestine as either legal or permanent, building permits would have been sought from the PA before building work commenced. The EU structures are therefore legal under International Law and Israel knows it. This is why the structures have not been demolished.
The OP is therefore misleading and a rather pathetic attempt to somehow create equivalency between Zionist settlement building (illegal) and EU building (legal) where none exists.
Typical Hasbara BS
Not so respectfully, Challenger.
...You cannot build without a permit. The EU has continued to do so. Illegally. You can cry all you want. But, thems the breaks.
Did the EU ask permission to build from the PA? if the answer is "yes" that's all the legality that's required. I'm not crying, just stating the facts.
So if I give the local skinheads permission to build a clubhouse in your garden that is all the permission they need ?
If you are the legal owner of my garden or have sovereignty over the land my garden sits on, then, yes.