An outpost in Susya. CC-BY-NC-SA: Michael LoadenthalACRI: “The conclusions of the Levy Committee for the Arrangement of Outposts are legally unfounded and authorize a regime of institutionalized discrimination that has been in place for 45 years.”
Following the publication of the conclusions of the Committee for the Arrangement of Outposts, headed by Justice (ret.) Edmund Levy, Attorney Tamar Feldman, Director of ACRI’s Human rights in the Occupied Territories Department, stated that: “The Conclusions of the Levy Committee are legally unfounded and their purpose is to authorize and deepen the injustice that Israeli governments are performing in the Occupied Territories in the past 45 years.
“The settlement enterprise created a wrongful situation of absolute preference, in all areas of life, to the interests of settlers over those of Palestinians, while appropriating the land and water resources of the occupied population and injuring this population’s most basic rights – such as the right to property, to freedom of movement, to personal safety, and above all to equality before the law. The devastating consequences of Israeli settlements on the human rights of the Palestinian population are the ultimate proof for the importance of following the directives of international law in general and the laws of occupation in particular.
“Despite the fact that the State of Israel has been violating these obligations for 45 years, it is not within the powers of one committee or another to change international law, one of the main goals of which is to protect human rights.
“Since 1967, consecutive Israeli governments held a steadfast and unequivocal position that the Occupied Territories are being held in belligerent occupation, meaning a military occupation, and they do not constitute a part of the State of Israel. There is complete agreement on this mater between Israel and the rest of the world, and rejecting this position – through a committee appointed by the Prime Minister – is outrageous.”
ACRI’s letter to the Levy Committee (April 2012)
The Levy Committee’s conclusions and recommendations – English summary
