Israeli claims ‘baseless’

Press, 6 January 1978, Page 5

Israeli claims ‘baseless’

NZPA-Reuter Geneva There is “no valid basis in international law” on which the Israeli Government can maintain or continue its policy of settlement in any of the occupied Arab territories, the International Commission of Jurists has said.

In a report criticising Israel’s Middle East policies, the 1.C.J., in its bi-annual publication, “The Review,” said the 1949 Geneva Convention must be applied in the Middle East despite “ingenious Israeli arguments to the contrary.” In addition, and in an obvious reference to present Middle East peace negotiations. the LC.J. comments: “A claim (by Israel) of a better title than Jordan and Egypt on the grounds of the illegal and oppressive character of their previous occupation is hardly consistent with Israel’s expressed willingness to surrender at least part of the West Bank and

Gaza Strip in a final peace settlement. “In view of Israel’s insistence that it will never accept the foundation of an independent Palestine State, to what countries other than Jordan and Egypt could these territories be surrendered?”

The LC.J. — the organisation of law teachers, judges, and lawyers throughout the non-communist world — also says that Israeli settlements in occupied territories have been established "through the confiscation of private property.” The report finally rejects Israel’s argument that the occupied lands are theirs by historical and Biblical right. Arguments resting on the Bible have “no legal force,” says the report. “It is impossible to contemplate putting back the clock of history and restoring the land mass of the world to the descendants of supposed original inhabitants.”