Mike Pompeo, United States (US) Secretary of State under Donald Trump, announced in mid-November 2019 that the US no longer considers Israeli settlements in the West Bank a violation of international law. The US has long agreed with the vast majority of the international community that the same settlements are illegitimate; many believe the reversal of this policy endangers the prospects for peace between the Israeli and Palestinian people and jeopardizes the future establishment of a Palestinian state.
REVERSAL OF POLICY DEVALUES INTERNATIONAL LAW
The Trump administration’s decision essentially reverses a 1978 legal opinion issued by the US State Department to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs known as the Hansell Memorandum. The Hansell Memorandum said that “civilian settlements in [the West Bank are] inconsistent with international law.” While US policy on Israeli-occupied territories under later presidential administrations was often somewhat vague, no executive since 1978 has explicitly condemned the Hansell Memo and its brief analysis of international law in relation to the Israeli settlements.
Pompeo claims that labeling the settlements “inconsistent with international law has not advanced the cause of peace,” rejecting the legitimacy of international law entirely in the quest to bring peace to the Middle East. The Trump administration states that domestic Israeli courts should instead decide the status of the West Bank territories.
Palestinians have long hoped to establish an independent state that includes the lands of the West Bank, despite Israel’s capture of them during the Six-Day War of 1967.
THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY AFFIRMS INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS AND HUMANITARIAN LAW
The United Nations Security Council (UNSC), the European Union (EU), and a majority of states worldwide publicly denounce the Israeli settlements and refer to the West Bank (along with the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem) as the “Occupied Palestinian Territory”.
The EU in particular responded to Pompeo’s declaration within hours, calling on Israel to cease all settlement activity and unequivocally holding such activity illegal.
LEGAL BASIS OF THE INTERNATIONAL LAW VIOLATIONS
The primary basis generally invoked regarding the illegality of the Occupied Territories is the Fourth Geneva Convention, article 49 of which bars an “occupying power” from transferring parts of its own civilian population to occupied territory.
The Israeli occupation also implicates the Hague Regulations (annexed to the Fourth Hague Convention Respecting the Laws and Customs of War on Land), the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (holding individuals criminally accountable for war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide, and crimes of aggression), and customary international law.
The shift in US policy follows the Trump administration’s prior, controversial move of the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and its explicit recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, another territory Israel took from Syria in 1967. The international community does not recognize these annexations.
Ariana is a core team member of Human Rights Pulse. She is an ardent human rights advocate and soon-to-be attorney with experience in immigration and refugee rights, anti-death penalty advocacy, and nuclear disarmament among other issues.