# Land-stealing (Play Nice!) **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 1, 2007, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/land-stealing-play-nice/428416 "2007-12-01T02:59:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2007, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/land-stealing-play-nice/428416/1 "2007-12-01T02:59:39Z")
This is a factual question, and I ask everybody’s forbearance. In another board, I got a little too excited and claimed that Israel was built upon stolen land. This caused much excitement. So much in fact I allowed that thread of the argument to drop. It seemed to push a very hot button with some members and that was more than I wanted to do. I regret it. On the other hand, things have settled down now and I have been called to explain my earlier claim, which I think is correct. So again, let us all remain calm. “Can anyone here describe the mechanism used by Israel to transfer huge gobs of land from Arab land-owners to Jewish ones?” Wiki-cites would be most welcome. As I understand it … 1. Land title in that neck of the woods can be very convoluted, with records going back to the Ottomans and before. 2. The Jewish Agency used a number of techniques to get land for Jewish settlers. While many or not most were moral, I am proposing some were not. 3. Usually, a conquering army does not affect land title. When Texas became independent, land title did not change. Right? When the Germans took France, nobody lost their farm to a German family? (Poland was of course different.) 3a. OK, so the Israelis took your little town, how did a Jewish family get title to your or your neighbor’s farm? Was it declared vacant? What is seized for taxes? 1. Land use law in Israel may use legal forms, but they are forms that have historically favored one side over the other. Of course these laws were made by the Israelis. A quick trip to Wiki did not help. I admit I might be wrong, and am willing to be educated. In any case, I ask your help in winning the argument I am having elsewhere, and hope can avoid spreading the argument here. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2007, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/land-stealing-play-nice/428416/2 "2007-12-01T04:26:35Z")
Can’t help you with the OP, but I recall Hitler used Marxism to justify stealing land in WWII. He argued that the official state policy of the Soviet Union prohibited private ownership and said that everything in the country was communally owned. So Hitler said that the Germans could legally take anything they wanted in the Soviet Union because the laws of war only protected private property and according to the Soviets’ own statements, there was no private property in the USSR. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2007, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/land-stealing-play-nice/428416/3 "2007-12-01T04:51:14Z")
That is a side point, but (for me) a useful one. How did the Israeli handling of private property in conquered territory differ from how other countries behave in wartime? I have to go to work. I will be back later in the day. Thank you all. ---
**Author:** ![Testy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c37758/32.png) [@Testy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Testy)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2007, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/land-stealing-play-nice/428416/4 "2007-12-01T05:24:56Z")
**Paul** I can’t help much with the Israelis but I used to live in Larnaca Cyprus. Which had a revolt/rebellion/civil war in the '70s. The populace fled to whichever side of the island was safe for them, abandoning their homes and farms. Abandoned farms and houses were simply occupied and kept by whoever got there first and had the firepower to hold onto it. Each group then applied to their new government to get title to the land. I suspect that this is what the Israelis did when they drove off the Palestinians. I have some friends that have just retired, bought property, and built a house in a beautiful coastal area in North Cyprus. They bought the land from a Turkish-Cypriot farmer that had owned the land for 30+ years and whose title deed came from Turkey. It turns out that the land had been seized by the Turks in the '70s. Oddly and horribly, I met the descendants of the original Greek-Cypriot owners here in Saudi and was innocently jabbering about the cool house my friends had built. I had no idea it was these people’s ancestral lands. It put quite a damper on the conversation. :smack: Hope this helps. Testy ---
**Author:** ![Danimal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bb73d2/32.png) [@Danimal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Danimal)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2007, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/land-stealing-play-nice/428416/5 "2007-12-01T06:46:23Z")
I believe the legal theory on which most land previously owned by Palestinians was transferred to Israelis was the theory of abandonment. Israelis could file a claim only on land that had been abandoned by its Arab owners. From what I can recall of David Shipler’s _Arab and Jew_, at least 70,000 Arabs “abandoned” the land at gunpoint, being driven out by the Palmach and Haganah, but nearly a million more fled the land at Egyptian and Syrian urging, long before any Israeli soldiers came anywhere near them. Then also, a large number of Arabs neither left nor were forced out, and still own their lands; I don’t know how many there were in 1948, but their descendants in modern Israel number nearly a million. That’s why I say the theory was “abandonment,” because those Arabs that did not leave Israel willingly or at gunpoint generally still own their land. I heard a brief report on NPR recently about Israel beginning to take land away from Bedouins in the Negev Desert. This is something distinct from what happened in 1948, and I couldn’t discern from the report what justification the Israelis offered for taking this land. By pure speculation, I would guess this is the Israeli government taking advantage of the fact that a society long on tradition and short on literacy probably just has a traditional claim to the land that goes back centuries or millennia, but which isn’t formalized on paper anywhere. ---
**Author:** ![Gfactor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de053/32.png) [@Gfactor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gfactor)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2007, 7:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/land-stealing-play-nice/428416/6 "2007-12-01T07:17:08Z")
> [@](#): > > In October 2006, the Israeli NGO, Peace Now, published a study which showed, on the basis of government maps and figures, that nearly 40 per cent of the land held by Israeli settlements in the West Bank is privately owned by Palestinians. The data shows, for example, that 86 per cent of the largest settlement of Ma’aleh Adumim is on Palestinian private property; that 35 per cent of Ariel is on private property; and that more than 3,400 buildings in settlements are constructed on land privately owned by Palestinians. The Israeli Government maintains that it respects Palestinian property in the West Bank and that it only, on a temporary basis, takes land there legally for security reasons. Moreover, article 46 of the Hague Regulations of 1907, which Israel acknowledges as binding upon it, provides that “private property … must be respected” and “cannot be confiscated”. Peace Now’s disclosure is an embarrassment to the Government of Israel but it is unlikely to respond positively as it has already repeatedly rejected the international community’s complaint that settlements are contrary to article 49, paragraph 6, of the Fourth Geneva Convention. This new revelation does, however, serve to further emphasize the illegality of Israel’s colonial empire - the settlements - in the West Bank. Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, John Dugard, 29 January 2007, U.N. Human Rights Council [http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:6FNGgWqJQfsJ:www.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/docs/4session/A.HRC.4.17.pdf+israel+palestine+private+property+rights+abandoned&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=16&gl=us&client=firefox-a](http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:6FNGgWqJQfsJ:www.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/docs/4session/A.HRC.4.17.pdf+israel+palestine+private+property+rights+abandoned&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=16&gl=us&client=firefox-a) [http://www.fff.org/comment/com0305o.asp](http://www.fff.org/comment/com0305o.asp) [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0002-9300(199504)89%3A2\<295%3APCTPRI\>2.0.CO%3B2-L](http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0002-9300(199504)89%3A2%3C295%3APCTPRI%3E2.0.CO%3B2-L) > **[PIJ.ORG: Reparations and Rehabilitation of Palestinian Refugees By Ruth Klinov](https://pij.org/articles/155)** > > An independent publication, with an often critical voice, the Palestine-Israel Journal provides background material and in-depth analysis of various aspects of the conflict from the perspective of both sides, thus helping to shed light on the complex... ---
**Author:** ![Danimal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bb73d2/32.png) [@Danimal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Danimal)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2007, 8:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/land-stealing-play-nice/428416/7 "2007-12-01T08:35:15Z")
**Gfactor** , I think that’s a little different from the question **Paul** was asking. The West Bank isn’t part of Israel, by Israeli law or any other. Of the land Israel occupied in 1967, the only territory it annexed was the Golan Heights. I believe **Paul** was asking specifically about private Arab lands being claimed by Jews in Israel. I recall reading back in the '90s, during the early days of the Palestinian Authority, Arafat declaring the private sale of West Bank and Gaza Strip land to Jews illegal (!). I wonder if Peace Now’s calculation of the percentage of Israeli settlements built on privately owned Palestinian land includes land sold to the Israelis in violation of that order. And I don’t know how long that order was in effect, or even if Arafat had the legal authority to issue it. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2007, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/land-stealing-play-nice/428416/8 "2007-12-01T12:47:44Z")
I am back form work, and am pleased everyone is so calm. We are dealing with facts. Of course they are facts that still emotions, I realize that. Surely there must be someone on the Dope who understands the exact legalities of all this. I am hoping for more. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2007, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/land-stealing-play-nice/428416/9 "2007-12-01T13:01:15Z")
[QUOTE=Testy] **Paul** I can’t help much with the Israelis but I used to live in Larnaca Cyprus. Which had a revolt/rebellion/civil war in the '70s. The populace fled to whichever side of the island was safe for them, abandoning their homes and farms. Abandoned farms and houses were simply occupied and kept by whoever got there first and had the firepower to hold onto it. Each group then applied to their new government to get title to the land. I suspect that this is what the Israelis did when they drove off the Palestinians. [/QUOTE] Essentially, except that very little property was taken by individuals: most of it was seized by the state and eventually sold off. Remember, the vast majority of Jewish combatants in the 1947-1949 war served in one of the militias (most of them in the Haganna, which comprised of something like 80% of the fighting force) and were in no position to take land for themselves. Another thing that most people forget is that much - even most - of the land in this country has always been state-owned. It was originally Turkish land, then British, then Israeli. The Israeli government often unfreezes it for development, but echnically, it’s not “taken” from anyone. You should bear in mind, then, that when some people say that Israel is stealing Arab lands, they actually mean that the Israeli govm’t is unsing lands that should be controlled by an Arab government, as the Israeli government, to them, is illegitimate. ---
**Author:** ![DaphneBlack](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/daphneblack/32/5389_2.png) [@DaphneBlack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DaphneBlack)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2007, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/land-stealing-play-nice/428416/10 "2007-12-01T13:10:27Z")
What about Jews who purchased land from the British whilst it was still under the Mandate? How’d that work (did it happen much?) ---
**Author:** ![Gfactor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de053/32.png) [@Gfactor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gfactor)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2007, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/land-stealing-play-nice/428416/11 "2007-12-01T14:11:08Z")
[QUOTE=Danimal] **Gfactor** , I think that’s a little different from the question **Paul** was asking. [/QUOTE] Ah. Ok. Then I got nothin. Here is a link to the study (I think), which does indeed only focus on West Bank Settlements: [http://www.peacenow.org.il/site/en/peace.asp?pi=61&fld=495&docid=2024&pos=8](http://www.peacenow.org.il/site/en/peace.asp?pi=61&fld=495&docid=2024&pos=8) ---
**Author:** ![Gfactor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de053/32.png) [@Gfactor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gfactor)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2007, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/land-stealing-play-nice/428416/12 "2007-12-01T14:21:32Z")
Found this: > [@](#): > > The present landholding system in Israel can be traced back to the events of nearly a century ago, when the Fifth Zionist Congress meeting in 1901 created a private charitable organization called the Jewish National Fund (JNF) with the intent to purchase land for the resettlement of Jews in their ancient homeland. By the eve of statehood, the JNF had acquired a total of 936,000 dunums of land; another 800,000 dunums had been acquired by other Jewish organizations or individuals.11 These holdings amounted to some 8.6 percent of the total land of what would later be Israel; of the rest, more than 70 percent were public lands vested in the British Mandatory authorities.12 All the lands purchased by the JNF remained in JNF hands; these were never sold, either to Jews or Arabs, but instead were leased on a long—term basis for kibbutzim and other forms of Jewish settlement. > > With the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, the new government inherited the state-owned lands formerly in the possession of British Mandatory authority as well as property abandoned by Arab refugees. The government sold some of this land to the JNF, and retained the rest. In 1960, the Israeli parliament passed a series of land laws including the “Basic Law: Israel Lands” that defined government-owned and JNF-owned land both as “Israel lands.” It reiterated the principle that these lands would only be leased, not sold. While the JNF retained ownership of its lands, the 1960 laws turned administrative responsibility for these (as well as government-owned) properties to a newly-created agency, the Israel Land Administration (ILA).13 [http://www.meforum.org/article/370](http://www.meforum.org/article/370) This seems to talk about it a bit too: [http://www.meforum.org/article/370](http://www.meforum.org/article/370) and the wiki is actually pretty thorough: [Israeli land and property laws - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_and_Property_laws_in_Israel) ---
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2007, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/land-stealing-play-nice/428416/13 "2007-12-01T19:46:18Z")
[QUOTE=Testy] **Paul** I can’t help much with the Israelis but I used to live in Larnaca Cyprus. Which had a revolt/rebellion/civil war in the '70s. The populace fled to whichever side of the island was safe for them, abandoning their homes and farms. Testy [/QUOTE] I went into Cyprus during the Turkish invasion to get British service families out of danger and evacuate. What I saw there was the Greek Cypriots were mostly acting in the same way to the Turkish Cypriots as the Serbs were later to act against the ethnic minorities in the former Yugoslavia . We went up to a former T.C. village in the Troudos mountains and there was totally no sign of life,plenty of blood stains and massive amounts of bullet scars in building walls . I have no sympathy whatsoever for the G.C.s they were murderers and to dateI have never seen any sign of remorse from them for what they did. As to Israel I think that technically they have no legal right to the lands they live in but when the PLO started murdering innocent Europeans to promote their cause they lost any rights to anything. Having been there it seems to me that the Palestinians only understand one thing ,the man with the gun is in charge,when they’re not murdering old ladies out shopping in Israel they’re murdering each other (In between stealing for themselves as much aid cash as possible) ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2007, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/land-stealing-play-nice/428416/14 "2007-12-01T20:49:54Z")
See, that’s exactly the kind of post the OP was hoping to avoid. ---
**Author:** ![Ocean\_Annie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8797f3/32.png) [@Ocean\_Annie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ocean_Annie)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2007, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/land-stealing-play-nice/428416/15 "2007-12-01T21:14:41Z")
[QUOTE=Danimal] **Gfactor** , I think that’s a little different from the question **Paul** was asking. The West Bank isn’t part of Israel, by Israeli law or any other. Of the land Israel occupied in 1967, the only territory it annexed was the Golan Heights. I believe **Paul** was asking specifically about private Arab lands being claimed by Jews in Israel. [/QUOTE] Danimal, my understanding is that the 1967 Arab-Israeli War rearranged the map of the Middle East. The Sinai, Golan Heights, West Bank, and Jerusalem became Israeli occupied territories. The West Bank contained 750,00 Arabs. In 1977, ten years after the Six Day War, Menachem Begin insisted that the West Bank contained the Biblical lands of Judea and Samaria and encouraged Israeli settlement. I suppose it can be said the West Bank was never officially annexed, but Israelis considered it their land. The Arab-Israeli Wars and Israeli occupied lands did result in refugees and abandoned Arab property which the Israelis considered also rightfully theirs to settle. The Israeli government essentially seized the land and provided grants to settlers to build homes. [Six Day War](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six-Day_War) [QUOTE=DaphneBlack] What about Jews who purchased land from the British whilst it was still under the Mandate? How’d that work (did it happen much?) [/QUOTE] British policy tried to satisfy all claims to the land. The 1916 Hussein-McMahon agreement promised the recognition of an Arab state in exchange for the Arabs help fighting the Turks. In 1917, the British wanted Jewish aid with the Turkish rebellions, so Britain also promised a national home for the Jews in the _Balfour Declaration_. The Balfour was endorsed by the League of Nations. To satisfy the Arabs, Britain transferred a stretch of land in eastern Palestine to the Emirate of Trans-Jordon and in 1939 issued the _White Papers_ which expressed the British position of limiting the Jewish population in Palestine and the transfer of land to the Jews. I am not sure that the Jews ever bought land. The British transferred land to the Arabs and the Jews. Ultimately, the destruction of European Jews in WWII ushered in the creation of Israel as a matter of Jewish survival. \*\*A few of the dates from my book source are not the same as wiki. \*\* [The White Papers](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Churchill_White_Paper%2C_1922) [Trans-Jordon](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transjordan) ---
**Author:** ![Testy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c37758/32.png) [@Testy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Testy)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2007, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/land-stealing-play-nice/428416/16 "2007-12-02T16:59:31Z")
[QUOTE=Lust4Life] \ We went up to a former T.C. village in the Troudos mountains and there was totally no sign of life,plenty of blood stains and massive amounts of bullet scars in building walls . I have no sympathy whatsoever for the G.C.s they were murderers and to dateI have never seen any sign of remorse from them for what they did. As to Israel I think that technically they have no legal right to the lands they live in but when the PLO started murdering innocent Europeans to promote their cause they lost any rights to anything. Having been there it seems to me that the Palestinians only understand one thing ,the man with the gun is in charge,when they’re not murdering old ladies out shopping in Israel they’re murdering each other (In between stealing for themselves as much aid cash as possible) [/QUOTE] **Lust4Life** Actually, I agree about the Greek Cypriots. They are **still** acting crazy over that whole thing. I lived there (briefly) in the late '80s and it was always a PITA to drive across the border. We had the Cypriot CIA or whatever they call it trash our offices for calling Istanbul, lots of things. Even the Turkish villages selling seafood were harassed in the newspapers and accused of selling radioactive shrimp. (Seriously, no kidding! :smack: ) Flying from Larnaca to Istanbul was quite a chore. I went through Athens once, where they treated me like I had leprosy. I can’t really address the Israeli / Palestinian thing as I avoid it. I will say that over the years the _automatic, unthinking_ support I used to have for Israel has diminished. Neither side is as lily-pure and put upon by the other side as they would have you believe. Regards Testy ---
**Author:** ![Chief\_Pedant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a6a055/32.png) [@Chief\_Pedant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chief_Pedant)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2007, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/land-stealing-play-nice/428416/17 "2007-12-02T17:26:57Z")
[QUOTE=Paul in Saudi] This is a factual question, and I ask everybody’s forbearance. In another board, I got a little too excited and claimed that Israel was built upon stolen land. [/QUOTE] Can you clarify how far back you want to go? Nearly every successful group swiped their land from someone or (if you get nutty enough about animal rights) something with a more “original” claim to title. The Jews, in particular, own the book of Joshua which is very clear (and very graphic) about how the Jews stole the land from its previous owners, slaughtering them in the process. An example cite: \*“The Book mentions 31 kings defeated (12:24)… and after every battle, the city and everyone in it he put to the sword, as ordered by the Lord” \* [http://biblia.com/jesusbible/joshua.htm](http://biblia.com/jesusbible/joshua.htm) Basically pretty much a holocaust deal with total extermination of conquered men, women and children. As a member of a conquering group myself, I am delighted at my ancestors’ success even though I think civilization has evolved to where such shenanigans are no longer appropriate. The clear lesson seems to be that if you are going to swipe, you need to wipe out the previous owners if you want to avoid hard feelings. As an aside, see the current National Geographic for a perspective on some of the modern controversy, with particular reference to Bethlehem. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2007, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/land-stealing-play-nice/428416/18 "2007-12-03T01:18:06Z")
I think it’s pretty clear that we’re talking about two seperate issues; national sovereignty of territory and private ownership of individual pieces of real estate. The first issue has been debated many times in regards to Israel. But the OP is asking about the second issue. Paul isn’t asking about Israel taking the West Bank from Jordan, he’s talking about Sol owning a field that used to belong to Ahmed. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2007, 10:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/land-stealing-play-nice/428416/19 "2007-12-03T10:02:04Z")
Aren’t you overlooking the simple one: ownership by right of conquest? But I’d suggest a more diplomatic response: something along the lines of, “Given the upset caused last time around, I’d really rather drop the matter.” ---
**Author:** ![Gfactor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de053/32.png) [@Gfactor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gfactor)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2007, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/land-stealing-play-nice/428416/20 "2007-12-04T20:45:05Z")
[QUOTE=Quartz] Aren’t you overlooking the simple one: ownership by right of conquest? [/QUOTE] > [@](#): > > 1. The Court will now determine the rules and principles of international law which are relevant in assessing the legality of the measures taken by Israel. Such rules and principles can be found in the United Nations Charter and certain other treaties, in customary international law and in the relevant resolutions adopted pursuant to the Charter by the General Assembly and the Security Council. However, doubts have been expressed by Israel as to the applicability in the Occupied Palestinian Territory of certain rules of international humanitarian law and human rights instruiments. The Court will now consider these various > questions. > > 2. The Court first recalls that, pursuant to Article 2, paragraph 4, of the United Nations Charter: > “All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of’any State, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations.” > On 24 October 19713, the General Assembly adopted resolution 2625 (XXV), entitled “Declaration on Principles of International Law concerning Friendly Relations and Co-operation among States” (hereinafter “resolution 2625 (X:YV)”), in which it emphasized that “No territorial acquisition resulting from the threat or use of force shall be recognized as legal.” As the Court stated in its Judgment in the case concerning Military und Pararnilitary Activities in and against Nicaragua (Nicaragau v. United States of Arnerica), **the principles as to the use of force incorporated in the Charter reflect customary international law (see 1. C. J. Reports 1986, pp. 98-1 01, paras. 187- 190); the same is true of its corollary entailing the illegality of territorial acquisition resulting from the threat or use of force.** - Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory\*, Advisory Opinion of 9 July 2004, International Court of Justice: [http://www.icj-cij.org/docket/files/131/1671.pdf](http://www.icj-cij.org/docket/files/131/1671.pdf) (Emphasis added.) _and see_\* Id.\* at ¶ 117 [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/land-stealing-play-nice/428416.md?page=2)