Israel's peculiar attitude to law

international | rights, freedoms and repression | opinion/analysis Wednesday July 08, 2009 00:25 by Gerry

Israel's Wall is illegal, as is its land and property theft

The real problem with Israel is that it recognises legality when it suits, and ignores legality when it does not suit.
For instance, the Wall has been illegally constructed well outside the Green Line, thus it is illegal. Also it has been made to take a circuitous path to encircle illegal settlements---a double offence.

Another example of illegality is Israel's attitude to land law within Israel. When a lawyer has de facto won a case concerning a Palestinian family's right to a piece of land, having provided full evidence of legal ownership going back centuries, the Israeli courts frequently brush this evidence aside with laws which they have recently invented and which do not conform to normal internationally accepted land law. In short, Israel has invented laws which give it the "legal" right to appropriate (steal) any land it puts its eye on.

The city of Hebron provides another example of blatant theft. Israeli settlers have moved into what was a Palestinian town, and over a number of years have simply grabbed Palestinian houses , and are allowed to keep them. Sometimes the Israelis knock a hole in a wall separating houses and move in and appropriate the second house for themselves. Law is a farce in the hands and clever mouths of the Israelis.