It’s not unlawful to take land during a war. It’s just shitty, in most instances.
This is why the settlements were (international viewed as) illegal (or, in the most generous of terms, of extremely questionable legality) prior to the war but aree authorized during the war specifically. Plays a lot better, in terms of international politics.
I would love to see the US make any aid to Israel conditional on a complete reversal of this policy and development of the West Bank in general. Would do a lot for the eventual peace process, as a nice side effect.
Edit: from the link in the article, about the background here
The deal would include gestures to the Palestinians. Among the suggestions has been a freeze in West Bank settlement activity, including the authorizations of outposts. Netanyahu’s government has been opposed to any such demand within the context of the Saudi deal or any other framework.
Prior to the war’s start, it was very politically unpopular for them to build settlements on outpost territory. Not the gloves are off, because they have plausible reasons in the international community.
The US has the power to take that plausible reason away, and should do so.
The people of the west bank (and Gaza) absolutely have the right to fight back right now. I wouldn’t recommend it as an outsider, because they’re going to lose, but I’d do it if I was there, because I’m an idiot.
They didn’t have the (internationally recognized) right to engage in hostilities, prior to the 10/7 terrorist attacks.
Worth noting this land is already Israeli land within the West Bank. They are outposts similar to US military bases.
You and I can disagree with Israel on the morality of that, but the international community absolutely recognizes this land as Israeli (outside the Muslim block of the UN, which doesn’t really recognize Israel as a state still.
This is why Hamas attacked Israel in October, to try to disrupt that normalization, because Israel’s “aggressive” strategies are as predictable as the tides.
There is no war in the west bank. They are involved in a drastic increase of settler violence, colonialist land grabs, judicial violence and ecocide. Behaviour that has been observed for decades and that has seen a significant increase even before the Gaza strip war, and has seen an outright explosion following Israel’s increase of wanton and indiscriminate violence in Gaza perpetrated by the IDF.
All of this violence in the west bank has been thoroughly documented by HRW and B’Tselem. The Israeli settler’s and the IDF’s behaviour is decidedly not a consequence of ‘the war’, and any claim made as such fails to take into account that this behaviour has seen an upwards trend for a decade at least, and is therefore merely a continuation, albeit a stark increase.
Per the article, Israel has declared war on the West Bank when they declared war against Hamas.
I find that declaration sweeping and a bit difficult to defend, but it has happened.
All of this violence in the west bank has been thoroughly documented by HRW and B’Tselem. The Israeli settler’s and the IDF’s behaviour is decidedly not a consequence of ‘the war’
This current violence is absolutely predicated upon the war legally, and more importantly in human terms, driven by hate - which is most assuredly because of the war.
It’s not unlawful to take land during a war. It’s just shitty, in most instances.
This is why the settlements were (international viewed as) illegal (or, in the most generous of terms, of extremely questionable legality) prior to the war but aree authorized during the war specifically. Plays a lot better, in terms of international politics.
I would love to see the US make any aid to Israel conditional on a complete reversal of this policy and development of the West Bank in general. Would do a lot for the eventual peace process, as a nice side effect.
Edit: from the link in the article, about the background here
Prior to the war’s start, it was very politically unpopular for them to build settlements on outpost territory. Not the gloves are off, because they have plausible reasons in the international community.
The US has the power to take that plausible reason away, and should do so.
So, if this is a war, they basically have the same rights as Ukraine as they fight for the integrity of their land? Is that what you’re saying?
The people of the west bank (and Gaza) absolutely have the right to fight back right now. I wouldn’t recommend it as an outsider, because they’re going to lose, but I’d do it if I was there, because I’m an idiot.
They didn’t have the (internationally recognized) right to engage in hostilities, prior to the 10/7 terrorist attacks.
Worth noting this land is already Israeli land within the West Bank. They are outposts similar to US military bases.
You and I can disagree with Israel on the morality of that, but the international community absolutely recognizes this land as Israeli (outside the Muslim block of the UN, which doesn’t really recognize Israel as a state still.
Even Saudi Arabia is considering to normalize relationship with Israel.
This is why Hamas attacked Israel in October, to try to disrupt that normalization, because Israel’s “aggressive” strategies are as predictable as the tides.
Thank you for your reasonable voice. Reading comments here about this topic can be very frustrating.
There is no war in the west bank. They are involved in a drastic increase of settler violence, colonialist land grabs, judicial violence and ecocide. Behaviour that has been observed for decades and that has seen a significant increase even before the Gaza strip war, and has seen an outright explosion following Israel’s increase of wanton and indiscriminate violence in Gaza perpetrated by the IDF.
All of this violence in the west bank has been thoroughly documented by HRW and B’Tselem. The Israeli settler’s and the IDF’s behaviour is decidedly not a consequence of ‘the war’, and any claim made as such fails to take into account that this behaviour has seen an upwards trend for a decade at least, and is therefore merely a continuation, albeit a stark increase.
Per the article, Israel has declared war on the West Bank when they declared war against Hamas.
I find that declaration sweeping and a bit difficult to defend, but it has happened.
This current violence is absolutely predicated upon the war legally, and more importantly in human terms, driven by hate - which is most assuredly because of the war.
It is illegal to take land during a war. Wiki:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annexation
Boy someone better tell literally every country on the planet