Organization: Bar-Ilan University Computing Center, Israel
Date: Mon, 28 Dec 1992 06:57:33 IST
From: Hank Nussbacher <HANK@BARILVM.BITNET>
Newsgroups: talk.politics.mideast
Subject: Re: Israel and the Fourth Geneva Convention (was: Israeli Nazism?)
 <BzwuJ1.D4w.1@cs.cmu.edu>

In article <BzwuJ1.D4w.1@cs.cmu.edu>, clamen+@CS.CMU.EDU (Stewart Clamen) says:
>
>In article <1483500313@igc.apc.org> Center for Policy Research                >
><cpr@igc.apc.org
>writes:
>
>We have been told by numerous media and diplomatic officials in the
>media that deportations are illegal under the Geneva convention
>(assume for the moment that the Fourth Geneva Convention applies to
>the Territories.  I am fully aware that Israel does not recognize
>this, using the fact that the territories are not part of a
>recognized sovereign country.)
>
>As I understand the Geneva Convention, the occupying country is
>obligated to follow a few basic rules, including:
>
>        1) no forced, mass deportations of occupied population,
>        2) no forced migrations of its own citizenry INTO
>           occupied territory,
>        3) maintenance of the status quo wrt. laws and regulations,
>        4) policing the occupied territory

     In both the Hague  Regulations and the Fourth  Geneva Convention
 an  attempt   is  made   to  strike   a  balance   between  security
 considerations   of   the   military   government   and humanitarian
 considerations.  The current  laws in Yehuda,  Shomron and Gaza  are
 adopted from the  local Jordanian legislation  which existed in  the
 area  in  1966.   These  regulations  were  enacted  by  the British
 mandatory  government  in  1945,  and  applied to the entire British
 Mandate.  On May 24, 1948,  the Military Commander of Jordan's  Arab
 Legion issued a proclamation that  all the laws that were  in effect
 would continue to apply as  long as they were not  inconsistent with
 Jordanian legislation.  Israel continues to follow these regulations
 that  were  established  by   the  British  and  continued   by  the
 Jordanians.

     Regulation  112  of  these  regulations  empowers  the  Regional
 Commander to deport persons from the region for reasons of security.
 During the years 1976-1981, only 6 people were deported for security
 reasons and one was allowed to return.

     In 1979, in the case of  Abu Awad vs. the Regional Commander  of
 Judea and Samaria (Supreme Court Proceedings, Vol 33, Part 3, p  309
 (1979)), where it was contested that the Geneva Convention,  Article
 49 forbids deportations, the Supreme Court ruled as follows:

          The  directive  in  Regulation  108(1),  teaches us that
     powers  granted  to  the  authority  due  to  the   emergency
     situation, are given  to it for  one purpose alone,  that is,
     for ensuring the public order and security.  Dr. Pictet (J.S.
     Pictet,  Commentary,  IV  Geneva  Convention,   International
     Committee of the Red Cross, 1958), also regards this  purpose
     as a legitimate one.  It has nothing to do with  deportations
     for forced labor, torture  and extermination that occured  in
     the  Second  World  War.  Furthermore,  the  objective of the
     Respondent was to remove  the applicant from the  country and
     not  to  bring  him  to  Israel,  to  prevent  the  danger he
     constitutes to the safety of the public, and not to make  use
     of his manpower by exploiting him for the benefit of Israel.

Since Article 49 has been brought up let us look at what it states:

 The Geneva Convention, Article 49, paragraph 6 states:

      The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its
      own population into the territory it occupies.

        In the book "International Law: A Treatise, Vol II, Disputes,
 War and  Neutrality", by  L. Oppenheim  (1952), page  452, he writes
 "The occupying power  must not deport  or transfer parts  of its own
 civilian  population  into  the  territory  occupied  by  him  -   a
 prohibition intended to cover cases of the occupant bringing in  its
 nationals  for  the  purpose  of  displacing  the  population of the
 occupied territory".

>Stewart M. Clamen                       Internet:    clamen@cs.cmu.edu
>School of Computer Science              UUCP:        uunet!"clamen@cs.cmu.edu"
>Carnegie Mellon University              Phone:       +1 412 268 2145
>5000 Forbes Avenue                      Fax:         +1 412 681 5739
>Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3891, USA

Hank Nussbacher
Karnei Shomron
Israel
Xref: sparky talk.politics.mideast:23923 soc.culture.greek:11778 soc.culture.europe:10712 soc.history:10318 soc.rights.human:4641