Israel refers to the lands behind the so- called Security Barrier as the Seam Zone. Seam zones are sections of Palestinian land in the West Bank, which have been purposefully and tactically isolated by the Israeli government as a result of the erection of the illegal Israeli Apartheid Wall (built in 2003), with their location falling in-between the Wall and the 1949 Armistice Line (The Green Line). These lands have been designated by Israel as closed military areas/zones. As a result, Palestinian lose access to these isolated areas unless they are allowed by the Israeli-controlled permit regime. Statistics suggest that more than 60,000 Palestinians live in 57 communities within these so-called seam zones. Though Israel largely takes the control of the West Bank, despite limited Palestinian Authority rule over certain areas, Tel Aviv has failed to protect the Palestinians’ rights as an occupying power under the Geneva Convention (GC IV).
According to the data provided to Human Rights Watch, the Israeli army between July 1, 2014 and June 30, 2019 prosecuted 4,590 Palestinians for entering a “closed military zone’. The people in the seam zones are defined internationally as ‘Internally Stuck Persons’ as they are marooned inside the Israeli security zones. Those who live within seam zones must apply to the Israeli Civil Administration for a ‹permanent resident ID› in order to remain on their own land. Their movements are tightly controlled through the use of checkpoints and a permit regime, which in turn intrudes upon all aspects of their day-to-day activities and greatly compromises the quality of life available.
The Seam Zone is part of Area C, of the West Bank established between the Green Line and the Separation Barrier, entirely comprised of Palestinian land. The excuse for its establishment was nothing but a de-facto annexation to Israel of the settlements situated within the area. For Palestinians, this is a military –cum-security zone and they are only allowed to enter it once they have had a transit permit. For the majority of Palestinian villagers, their basic survival depends on working on the land, the land which consists of thousands of dunams of rich agricultural land. The Israeli fence has cut off many of them from this land. In order to give access to these agricultural territories which were enclosed in the seam-line zone, Israel has opened entrances in these territories of the seam- line zone, called agricultural checkpoints. Yet not surprisingly, at these checkpoints, there is a complicated and narrow network of prohibitions and permits. Entrance into these areas is limited to Palestinians possessing an agricultural permit which can be obtained only by presenting proof of ownership in the form of a document.
Tel Aviv not only continues to violate systematically the law of occupation and international human rights law, but it is also acting in contravention of the peremptory norm of international law– prohibiting the acquisition of territory by force
Even though if there is an official document of ownership, permission to enter these territories will be granted only to the head of the family –normally the father. Thus, many agriculturalists have no choice but to abandon their land. More than 70 checkpoints were erected in the Separation Barrier – less than 30 checkpoints function for once a week or more. The rest is permanently closed or open once a year.
Netanyahu has said that his conceived plan (which has been procrastinated because of the growing opposition from within and outside Israel) is “no annexation”, although it involves applying Israeli sovereignty to the parts of the West Bank which contain Jewish settlements, as well as most of a swathe of land along the West Bank’s boundary with Jordan, known as the Jordan Valley. The move could result in some 4.5% of Palestinians in the West Bank living in enclaves within the annexed territory. Ad hoc PM Netanyahu has said Israeli sovereignty will not be applied to Palestinians in the Jordan Valley, and reports say the same exclusion will be unilaterally extended to Palestinians in other annexed parts of the West Bank. Annexation is the term applied when a state unilaterally proclaims its sovereignty over other territories. It is absolutely forbidden by international law. Before 1967, those areas had not previously been part of Israeli territory nor otherwise under its administration. By reason of such entry of its armed forces, Israel established control and began to exercise authority over these territories; and under international law, Israel thus became a belligerent occupant of these territories.
In asserting its position, albeit unjustifiable, the Israeli government has relied upon the so-called “missing reversioner” theory–referring in particular to the lack of a recognized sovereign over the occupied territories prior to their annexation by Jordan and Egypt in 1948. Pursuant to this controversial theory, when Israel occupied the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in 1967, they were not considered to be part of the territory of a High Contracting Party; as a result, according to this polarized view, the conditions of applicability set by article 2 of The Geneva Convention (GC IV were not fulfilled). Whilst under international law, the fact that an occupied territory is “disputed,” or its status is unclear, does not have a bearing on the legal assessment determining whether or not it is placed under ‘military occupation’. As argued by Tristan Ferraro, the ICRC legal advisor(one of the authors of the 2016 ICRC Commentary on Common Article 2) “[a]s for all types of armed conflict, the question whether an occupation exists is determined on the basis of the prevailing facts” keeping a strict separation between ‘jus in bello and jus ad bellum’.
In this context, any act by Israel that would constitute de facto or de jure annexation of parts of the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) is null and void under international law and does not change the status of the occupied territory nor the protections afforded by international humanitarian law (IHL) and international human rights law (IHRL) to the Palestinians living in it. In this regard, Tel Aviv not only continues to violate systematically the law of occupation and international human rights law, but it is also acting in contravention of the peremptory norm of international law– prohibiting the acquisition of territory by force.
Based on this legal-political prognosis based on applicable international law, Netanyahu’s suspended annexation plan may not get an enough support to restart because of the much illegality and unpopularity that is associated with this plan. On June 9, Israel’s Supreme Court, with an overwhelming majority (8-1) rejected a provocative 2017 law which allows the retroactive legalization of thousands of Jewish houses built on occupied West Bank lands privately owned by Palestinians. Therefore, nixing this annexation stratagem is the order of internationalism. According to the AFP, the Palestinian Authority (PA) sent a letter to the so-called Quartet – the four peace partners, the United States, the United Nations, the European Union and Russia — saying it was “ready to resume direct bilateral negotiations where they stopped in 2014.”
The writer is an independent ‘IR’ researcher and international law analyst based in Pakistan