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Settlement of displaced and misplaced persons in a Palestinian-Israeli peace
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by Peter A. Belmont / 2009-09-17
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There are 1.8M Palestinian refugees (from 1948, 1967) living as refugees in Jordan in 2009. There are millions more living in Lebanon. Israel proposes to require that most of its 500,000 settlers now living illegally in the West Bank and the Golan Heights be allowed to remain as an incident to a peace treaty, but that Palestinian refugees originally from what is now Israel not have the right to return to their country of origin.
This suggests that Israelis have a right to settle wherever they wish in Palestine (not, generally, their country of origin), whereas Palestinians do not.
Israel may succeed in cramming this down the Palestinians’ throats, but I’d hope the US would intercede to force Israel at the very least to remove the settlers before final peace is negotiated.
After all, even if the USA has acquiesced in Israel’s settlement policy over the last 30-40 years, that policy was nevertheless illegal under international humanitarian law (occupiers may not settle their own nationals in territories that they occupy).
Thus, whether or not peace is achieved soon, late, or not at all, during the continuation of occupation the presence of settlers offends the law and they should be removed independent of any progress (to say nothing of mere negotiations or the customary pretense of negotiations) toward peace.
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