BICOM

A report by an advisory committee formed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to examine the legal aspects of West Bank land ownership rejected the claim yesterday that Israel’s presence in the territory is that of an occupying force and said that settlement outposts built without official authorisation should be legalised.

The report argued that Israel was not an occupying power in the West Bank since the territory had not been legally part of any Arab state prior to its capture by Israel in 1967. Jordan’s annexation of the West Bank in 1948 was not accepted internationally. The committee, which was headed by Supreme Court Justice (Ret.) Edmond Levy, also called for the legalisation of most of the unlawful outposts in the West Bank, which were built without Israeli government approval, because the settlers had tacit government support. 

The report contradicts the findings of an earlier government commissioned report by a former state prosecutor Talia Sasson, published in 2005, which found the outposts to be illegal. Sasson yesterday criticised the new findings for ignoring international and Israeli legal rulings. Both sides in the dispute accuse the other’s findings of being politicised. Alan Baker, a former chief legal advisor in the Israeli foreign ministry and an international law expert who was part of the Levy committee, said that the panel listened to officials from across the political spectrum and stressed that the team’s agenda was strictly legal and not political. “Our work was based in international, Jordanian, Israeli and even Ottoman laws and touched upon all issues relevant to land and territories,” he added.

Following the release of the report, US State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell said the US rejected the findings. Ventrell said, “We do not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlement activity and we oppose any effort to legalize settlement outposts.” Washington is likely to pressure Israel to refrain from implementing the report’s recommendations, which would significantly change the legal realities in the West Bank.

Netanyahu formed the committee at the beginning of the year under political pressure to overturn the Sasson findings. The committee’s findings have only advisory status, and must be approved by Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein. Netanyahu said yesterday that he would bring the report before the Ministerial Committee on Settlement Affairs before any of its recommendations are decided upon.