For More Information, Call:
Land and Water Establishment For Release 1:30 p.m. Tel: (972) (02) 812364/824559 December 30, 1994 Fax: (972) (02) 811072
Is the Israeli Government waiting for legal advice
or
Is it playing with time?
Rabin and his cabinet know that by Israeli Military Law the decisions of the Military Committee of Appeals concerning land confiscation in the Occupied Territories are not final. The Supreme Court has the right to overturn these decisions, and the Military Commander of the West Bank has the right to decide how the land is used.
So what is Rabin waiting for? Why is he not ordering a stop to the work of building a new settlement near Afrat when the Commander has the right by Israeli military law to cancel any decision about the use of confiscated land? In addition, the long-term leasing contracts between the settlers and the government are only valid insofar as they do not violate the peace process agreements. In the agreements, however, further settlement building is considered as against the peace process, and therefore the building taking place now in Al Khader village is illegal according to this premise.
Also, the military law and its mechanisms used by the Military Committee of Appeals give this committee the possibility of confiscating roughly two-thirds of the land on the West Bank. When the Jordanian government began to register the lands in the West Bank area under the names of private owners, it was able to register only 30% of the land in the 15 year period between of 1952 and 1967. Registration was continuing when Israel occupied this territory in 1967. At this time Israel, in violation of international law and knowing that the majority of land was unregistered, issued a military order to stop land registration. This allowed Israel to consider the unregistered lands as state land, and therefore vulnerable to confiscation.
** Land and Water Establishment represents the people of Al Khader Village, and has applied to the Supreme Court for a decision on the legality of the land confiscation.