Israel approves new building plan for West Bank settlement

peace with Muslims? where have you been? Look around and see if the Muslims wont to make peace with anybody that is not muslim.All the talk about is Jihad for the Jews and crusades, wake up!

Palestinian suffering??? Suffering they brought on by them self's, I hope this will teach them something that is not all Islam!

When the Nazis/Germany lost the war Poland and USSR have settled they own ppl on the land they have acquired from Germany, as Germany LOST the war they started and accepted the outcome, is innit the same story here?A don't see any legal problems here, so why Israel can't do the same? After all the Arabs have started all the wars and they have to suffer the consequences, maybe this will wake them up.

Great !! the more the better !

Be fruitfull and multiply.........well we will need homes.

Last I heard it was Israel and it is within Israel's rights to build on their OWN land. And please do not brag about land belonging to some body else, sooner usual anti-Israel crowd realizes that sooner they shut up...Proud of You Israel!!!!

Funny that the World Court and every nation in the world outside Israel including even the U.S. does not agree with your version of international law. In the World Court's advisory opinion which declared the illegality of the portion of the separation wall which is on Palestinian territory, even the dissenting U.S. justice conceded the illegality of the Israeli occupation/settlement enterprise.

The little corner of the world called Palestine/Israel nowadays, has passed through many hands over the centuries... political Zionists come, political Zionists will go.

"The Fourth Geneva Convention dates from 1949 and took several years to come into effect." Art. 153. The present Convention shall come into force six months after not less than two instruments of ratification have been deposited. Came into effect 1950. "The examples you quote all pre-date it and are thus irrelevant." The moment a state ratifies, it's current activities are subject

The West Bank and Gaza are "territories occupied" //8 January 2009 UNSC Res 1860 Recalling all of its relevant resolutions, including resolutions 242 (1967), 338 (1973), 1397 (2002), 1515 (2003) and 1850 (2008), Stressing that the Gaza Strip constitutes an integral part of the territory occupied in 1967 and will be a part of the Palestinian state// Read, absorb, and don't let me catch you peddling twaddle ever again. OK?

http://www.icrc.org/web/Eng/siteeng0.nsf/html/genevaconventions "To which signatory of the Geneva Conventions does the land in question belong to?" The non-state entity of Palestine. It includes Jerusalem (the UN never implemented its part of Res 181) At the time Israel Declared Jerusalem was still in what was left of the non-state entity of Palestine. http://wp.me/pDB7k-il " Which law prohibits them from reclaiming their lands and developing them?" The Laws of War. The Geneva Conventions. The Laws of Sovereignty and annexation.

The Anglo-American accord expired along with the British mandate, and the supreme court of Israel accepted that fact in 1950, when it ruled that it's boundaries are those specified in UNGAR181. Apart from that, the International Court of Justice ruled that the the settlements are illegal and a violation of article 49 of the fourth Geneva Convention in 2004.

"Jews accepted partition; Arab nations vowed AT THE UN to throw Jews into the sea." Quote it....verbatim. "The Jordanian army led by a British officer took Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria.." Iraqi forces... "Jordan thought they could destroy Israel from the East" Didn't attack Israel. They attacked Israeli forces OUTSIDE of Israel.

Why has Israel given permission for hundreds of of new homes for Arabs in Jerusalem? There's not much international condemnation for that.

Geneva Convention refers to forcible transfer of its people by state to occupied area. As the areas per the UN are not occupied but stated to be disputed, you are twice wrong. Pal is not a state and not covered in this context as the area had no legal sovereign once Britain departed

Whether this is legal or not I'll leave up to the courts in Israel. But not taking into account the PR ramifications of this construction just seems stupid on Israel's part. I understand your right to build in your own country but the timing is bad. It gives your enemies more ammunition to attack you with. We have all seen how the anti-Israel writers react to these kinds of announcements. So now you must endure another ill-founded barrage of worldwide condemnation with silly and hateful comparisons to totalitarian regimes.

The Fourth Geneva Convention dates from 1949 and took several years to come into effect. The examples you quote all pre-date it and are thus irrelevant.

Wrong: UN Sec Council Res specifies and speifically states the areas are disputed/contested lands NOT 'occupied'- the word 'occupied' is not in the resolution. Israel has not expelled a people as they left of own free will; nor has Israel forcibly transferred people into the lands. Geneva Convention 4 applies to states, Samaria,Judea etc [West Bank] were not part of any state. It was Jordan that occupied the area illegally. Anglo-American Treaty of 1924 ratified by YS Senate agrees that whole area [btn Jordan river and med Sea] is for Jews to live.

Why would Israel comply? Its only seen as a sign of weakness anyway, every concession and step for peace israel tried wit the Palestinians only resulted in more death and destruction.

Legal or not, the entire world - apart from Israel - believes Israel is an occupying power. The moral cost to Israel of keeping this status quo is appalling, Eventually the demographic reality will cost the Jews their homeland. The law cannot compensate for this.

just in case you have not ever heard of it: how many milions of germans were driven away from their ancestral dweling is eastern Prussia, from the Sudets, from poland, and elsewhere were they lived for centuries and centuries? So what? they lost their war and their land and homes and there is no prussian refugies administration in the UN, they just settled among their brothers and constructed new existance, because life must go on and becouse their brothers did not do every thing possible in order to prevent them from reconstruct a new life.

The point of the Geneva conventions relates to a distant power that comes and takes over land in a distant country. This isn't the case of Israel. Israel is surrounded by many hostile countries that declared war on it 48, 56, 67, 74, etc. Reasons The WB is Israeli - not Occupied 1-Israel captured the land to defend itself. 2-Many Israeli citizens resided there prior to 48 and were evicted/killed . 3-Israel never took Israelis and put them in WB. Israelis chose to buy land and build there. 4-None of the Jewish towns in the WB were built on privately owned land. 5-There never was a palestinian country 6-Israel offered peace in 1967 and in 2000 and got terror in return 7- The UN is made up by many arab/muslim countries and u cant expect it to support the Israeli side 8-The bible 9-There is only 1 Israel 10-Arabs have 10 times more land per capita 11-Palestinians have to learn to live and let live-Tolerance

You don't need Peace Now to destroy Israel when people like you have already destroyed the zionist dream for many with your approval of policies which has turned Israel into a country to be ashamed of, both as an occupying power and its treatment of its own non-Jewish citizens within the green line. Eventually your beliefs will ensure that Israel is destroyed simply through demographic means. Before it is too late you should realise that it is groups like Peace Now who want to save Israel as a Jewish state - in reality and ethos - by withdrawing from territory it occupies and by working for peace with its neighbours. In many ways time has already run out for people like you. You might be safe within your garrison country for the moment but it is a country that is becoming a global pariah state, condemned for its inhumane policies. What is security when it comes at such a price.

If they really want the Pals back at the negotiating table, why do this!!!! It's just insanity. I'm beginning to think that Natalie et al are right about one thing: The current Israeli government may not actually want peace.

You are completely wrong. For a piece of land to be occupied, it had to belong to group A and then be taken over by group B. The West Bank never belonged to the Pallies, so they cannot be group A in this scenario. The settlements are legal because of resolutions passed in the League of Nations; when the U.N. was formed, one of their principles was to accept League of Nations resolutions as valid and binding, so the sttlements are legal under U.N. law. Also, Israel did not declare borders in 1948, so your statement is false. Also, Israel is not desperate for a "negotiated" peace. Where did you make that one up from?

There is no way that the WB is occupied territory for the simple reason that there never ever was a Palestinian State in that area. In the last century there were Turks, Brits and Jordanians - not Palestinians. The Jordanians declared war on Israel in 1967 and lost the war. The land is Israeli land end of story. The arabs turned down peace in 1967 with The 3 big No's and Arafat turned down an offer for more than 90% of the WB in 2000 and started a war that the PA lost as well. If the PA wants to compromise, Israel is willing to talk but Israel will never go bk to 67 borders.

Shouldn't there be room for expansion of Moslems and Christians also in Jerusalem?

It's charming that you cite the Geneva Conventions. So, let me ask you this... To which signatory of the Geneva Conventions does the land in question belong to? If you are that well-versed in the Geneva Conventions, you do understand that this is how it is worded, right? You still ignore the fact that Jews were kicked out of those territories in 1948 to begin with. Which law prohibits them from reclaiming their lands and developing them?

FACT Not a single settlement was built by Israelis,they have all been built by Palestinians,Those complaining to Israel should address themselves to the Palestinians

Cummings always leaves out the part where Jews were kicked out in the first place, and that they have reclaimed their properties and are allowed to develop their own properties, aren't they? After all, they were only absent for 19 years. Cummings dishonestly pretends that history starts in 1967.

I normally do not respond to such nonsense but in your case I'll make an exception. The fundamental point about settlements is that they are illegal. Occupied territory is not under the sovereignty of the occupant. It cannot treat the territory it occupies as it sees fit. An occupant's powers are circumscribed by international law, which unequivocally prohibits the settlement of part of its population, whether forcible or voluntary, in that territory. While this prohibition arises from Article 49, Article 1 requires parties not merely to respect the terms of the convention in their own conduct but also to ensure that others do. All states are party to the Geneva Conventions, therefore all states have the duty to ensure that Israel's illegal policy of creating settlements in occupied Palestinian territory ceases without further delay. Incidently Yossi, I never mentioned "armisitce lines"

Because this is the Eternal capital of Israel doesn't matter what other country are saying over the it status. Jerusalem is an open city Catholic Muslim and Jews have their freedom but no way that we give up Jerusalem to anyone in the world. I don't want to remember as usual that European powers and US have committed massacres to conquest their land and after massacres they all committed slavery. Today 2009 things are not changed and no one apologies for the committed crimes. the fact that you are still pretending to rule against the Jewish State is the evidence that anti-Semitism is growing and Israel is just an alibi to justify it. Approval for new building in Jerusalem was the right answer.

Gd always wins.

Comedy isn't your specialty, just as w/ all things, it helps to be Jewish.

Such a Yiddisha cup! Excellent and accurate rebuttal to the never ending stream of lies and liars. Happiest of Happy New Years. Shalom and Braca.

It's not new, it's the truth and older than any Arab claim to the contrary. Too bad that so many including world leaders have been duped by lies and disinformation.

lips to Gds ears. Just like it was written of thousands of years ago. Such a book, such an ending.

" International Law prohibits any occupier from transferring their citizens to the occupied territory." Does international law prohibit Jews from returning to their properties after they were wiped off of them by Jordan? Does international law prevent those property owners from developing and selling their properties? Does international law prevent Israel from protecting them because they are targeted by the same people who wiped them out in the first place?

Why make a peace deal while Muslims are still on Jewish land. Let them have Gaza and they already have Jordan. US had Jews in most key positions and UN is toothless.

you should be leading the legal team to the hague so that once and for all the whole world will be clear about the territories. btw what will you do with the 3 million not jews in the territories? will they become citizens of israel?

An occupying army cannot annex land, expel the indigenous people or settle its own people on that land. It is all spelled out clearly in Geneva Convention 4, which is a cornerstone of international law. Even the Israeli high court accepts that the West Bank is occupied. Which part of that do the Feiglinites not understand? Can they not read? That is why all the relevant world organisations - the UNSC and international courts in particular - declare all settlements on the West Bank illegal. Not one country accepts the legality of what Israel is doing because there can be none in law. Only Israel pretends it's 'disputed' territory, but that's just hasbara for the gullible domestic audience. Yishai Cohen is wrong in thinking that the Palestinian claim to the land stems from 1967. It stems from 1923, when Palestine became a recognised territory. Israel has no sovereignty beyond its 1948 borders and there should be NO Jewish settlement activity AT ALL on the West Bank.

Israel, and only Israel decides what's legal between the Jordan and the Mediterranean.

Just to clarify the history. In Nov. 1947, the UN voted for partition of the remainder of the Palestinian Mandate (Britain had given 3/4 to Hashemites from Saudi Arabia to form what is now Jordan). Jews accepted partition; Arab nations vowed AT THE UN to throw Jews into the sea. When Israel declared itself a nation the following year, Arab armies were already at the borders. Their leaders urged Arabs to leave so the armies would have a clear field for their drive. Most of the Arab forces failed to take anything, but the Jordanian army led by a British officer took Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, going on a mass killing spree of the Jews. Ten per cent of the Jewish population of that area lost their lives. Jordan held the land for 19 years until the 1957 war. Israel asked Jordan to stay out of it since they were already fighting Syria and Egypt, but Jordan thought they could destroy Israel from the East. They lost and during peace negotiations refused tp take it back

your comment is a sincere confession of how the israelis feel about the palestinians, that is, they don't care at all about their sufferings.

That's a new one!

You couldn't be more wrong. I have a degree in international law and have actualy studied what you pretend to know something about. The areas over the 1948 armistice lines are disputed areas, not occupied territory. Many of those areas were owned by Jews before they were occupied by Arabs as a result of a war of aggression that they initiated. The fact that the Arabs gambled and lost in 1967 does not suddenly make them the rightful owners of disputed areas. Strick to American topics that you know something about.

instead of befriending this threat and menace called Israel.

Our land: We should build.

It is really not difficult to see what is Israel's overall master plan, no matter who is running the country. I think the so called international community needs to comprehend that there wont be a two state solution if not enforced with sanctions and boycott on Israel. If nobody dares to think in this categories than Israelis should face a civil rights war for one state for all its citizens.

Well Sam, for your information NO settlements are legal under International Law. Which is why no country, including the US has recognized them as being legal. International Law prohibits any occupier from transferring their citizens to the occupied territory. The fact that Israel ignores the law doesn't legitimatise the illegal settlements. This is why Israel is desperate for a "negotiated" peace. Without it they may not legally extend their borders beyond what they declared in May of 1948. International Law is crystal clear on this point. NOTHING Israel has annexed is recognized by the international community, NOTHING!

They've been caught lying multiple times in recent history. They are a foreign-funded NGO whose underlying missing is to destroy Israel from the inside out.

Thanks a lot - just proves Obama can't trust the Israeli government. Back to square one!

USA_British Treaty 1924"close settlement between Jordan River & Medit.Sea"

"State approves new building plan for West Bank Settlement" Ed. If you don't believe me, please ask mother nature !