Applying Negev Development Authority Law to the West Bank violates international law

On 25 June 2017, Adalah – The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel sent a letter to the members of the Ministerial Committee on Legislation and to Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit demanding that they do not approve the proposed amendment to the Negev (Naqab) Development Authority Law that was scheduled to be brought before the Ministerial Committee on that date.

According to the proposed amendment, the law will be applied to certain areas in the West Bank so that the legal status of settlements will be equal to that of communities in the Naqab. With this amendment, Israel would be annexing parts of the southern West Bank to Israel.

(The Ministerial Committee did not discuss the amendment on 25 June. The proposed law may be brought before the Committee today, 2 July 2017).

Adalah Attorney Suhad Bishara argued in her letter that the bill contradicts both international law and Israeli law: “The proposed law attempts to replace the norms of international humanitarian law and to apply Israeli law to the area under discussion. It legalizes the expropriation of occupied territory, it alters [the area’s] designation, and it creates new facts on the ground that will prevent Palestinian residents from freely enjoying their natural wealth and resources.”

Adalah also argued that the proposed law will further exacerbate the human rights violations inherent in the establishment of the settlements: “The extensive expropriation of properties of the protected [Palestinian] population constitutes a gross violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention, and the building of the settlements violates Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention which prohibits the transfer of the occupying power’s civilian population to the occupied territory. Notably, the transfer by the occupying power of its civilian population to the occupied territory is defined as a war crime in the Rome Statute establishing the International Criminal Court (ICC).”

In light of the above, Adalah demanded that the members of the Ministerial Committee on Legislation do not approve the proposed law and act to prevent its enactment.