AG urges Israel to apply 4th Geneva Convention to Palestinian territories

[Violet_Crumble]

JERUSALEM : Israel's top law officer has recommended the government considers applying the Fourth Geneva Convention to the West Bank and Gaza Strip, a move which would implicitly acknowledge the occupation in the Palestinian territories.

A report compiled by a justice ministry team, overseen by Attorney General Menachem Mazuz, said that the government should "thoroughly examine" the possibility of applying the protocol which governs the treatment of civilians in occupied land.

The report was commissioned in the wake of a non-binding ruling in July by the International Court of Justice, the UN's highest legal body, against the legality of Israel's West Bank separation barrier.

Israel has refused to apply the convention in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, arguing that they were not sovereign territories before their capture in the 1967 Six Day War.

Gaza had been under Egyptian military control while the West Bank had been annexed by Jordan, a move recognised by only a handful of governments.

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_world/view/102778/1/.html

[no_hypocrisy]

1. Would such acknowledgement include Israel admitting that it does not

possess the West Bank and Gaza, it never did, that it is an occupying force, and it will inevitably have to withdraw from those territories?

Or would the law just govern the treatment of the non-Israel residents?

[Violet_Crumble]

2. Not bloody likely....

The recommendation will be met by a stony wall of silence. It's a bit disturbing to read in the article that Israel claims it applies the humanitarian aspects of the Fourth Geneva Convention to the Occupied Territories. I guess it must get a tad confused and believe that not destroying homes, infrastructure, curfews, roadblocks, and encouraging Israelis to move into the territory is all part of the political aspects of the Convention...

The article also said only a handful of countries acknowledged Jordan's annexation of the West Bank and Egypt's occupation of the Gaza Strip. I'm wondering if Israel was amongst that handful, because if they weren't, it's kind of hypocritical now to turn around and expect countries to acknowledge their occupation of the same territory...

Violet...

[legin]

3. Over-acting at its best

The mistake that most nasty bastards make is that they don't take acting lessons. You can get away with a hell of a lot more if you make the effort to pretend to be nice while sticking it to people, as opposed to dumping on people ungraciously.

Walking up to someone and saying "what a wonderfully intelligent and handsome/attractive person you are" and then punching them in the face, works a lot better than saying "you fucking bastard" in an agressive mannar before punching them. The first approach has less chance of getting a nasty reply.

israel is highly skilled at this con trick.

This pile of crap above is merely for good PR abroad, like nearly all of israel's more enlightened intiatives. They been doing this garbage for over 75 years so they got it down to a fine art.

[IA_Seth]

4. Oy Oy n/t

[legin]

6. If Milosovich had any talent what so ever

One, he wouldn't be sitting in a cell in The Hague, and two he would have got to do want he wanted to do quite easily.

The Croatians were much better organised.

Sticking it to people is always a twin track approach, politics/propaganda always goes hand in hand with the tanks.

If your good enough with the first part sometimes you don't even need the tanks e.g. Hitler and Checkeslovakia.

[legin]

7. The mistake we might be making here

is assuming that this is is the end-game for israel/Palestine that we are in at the moment. A good shove to get both sides to the conference table and it is all over.

I think israel wants the West Bank too (water, land, historical sites, defensible border on the Jordan).

So I think for israel this is just a phase of which they have had several in the past as they have grown larger and larger. It's sort of a time when they have got to look like they are making a peace deal, but the best way to make peace deals that you don't want is to make sure it is the other side that breaks them. Hence the so called 'Peace Fence'. With the right propaganda the West can be conned into accepting it as somehow fair. But you can bet that no Palestinian will swallow it, they might for a while but it is an equalibrium that is guaranteed to break down. And then we can move on to the next phase.

In an ideal world israel would want about 40 or 50 years to acquire the West Bank but with their current ever increasing un-popularity they may have to go a bit quicker.

If they had been happy with the Green Line they wouldn't have gone out of their way to build settlements on the West Bank slowly, intelligently and subtly over a number of years, and if the u.s. weren't in on it then they would have stopped them.

[legin]

8. And all the while

There has to be a constant stream of Hasbara that accompanies this process so it looks like the Palestinians are the aggressors as they get kicked off the last 20% of the land.

And as said before it's a well practiced art, because its been going on for over 75 years, so it is business as normal.

[IA_Seth]

5. Another step...

Here is to hoping this is a positive step in the right direction!

And here, unfortunately, is to the reality that this will probably not be followed up on...I have never wanted so desperately to be wrong!

[The Magistrate]

9. This Is An Interesting Development, Ma'am

There is scant room for doubt, certainly, that these regulations do apply to that territory, eand its populace.

There is considerable room to argue, given the on-going fact of violent conflict between the two peoples, that many Israeli military measures are well within the bounds of legality. Settlements, however, are another question entirely, and are clearly beyond legal bounds.

[legin]

10. It won't happen

How many kites have we had flown down here that looked like they could be a positive step foward ?

And how many times have they turned into something concrete ?

About 0 times.

If they are doing this PR exercise could be they got something nasty lined up around the corner. How long since israel had one of its incursions into the West Bank or Gaza ? It must be weeks. Way too long for the goal of keeping the Palestinians on the back foot.

[legin]

11. And it is such an utterly bogus one too

I got more chance of winning the lottery then this happening, and I don't do the lottery.

Which again makes me wonder why they went the effort of cooking this one up.