Editing West Bank (section)

====Area C and Israeli settlements====
{{Main|Area C (West Bank)|International law and Israeli settlements}}
[[File:West Bank Access Restrictions (United Nations OCHA oPt) May 2023 01.pdf|thumb|upright=1.15|right|Map of [[Israeli settlement]]s and [[Area C (West Bank)|Area C]] (magenta and blue), 2023]]

As of 2022, there are over 450,000 [[Israeli settlement|Israeli settlers]] living in 132 [[Israeli settlement]]s in the West Bank excluding East Jerusalem, with an additional 220,000 Jewish settlers residing in 12 settlements in [[East Jerusalem]].<ref name=":52">{{Cite web |title=Population |url=https://peacenow.org.il/en/settlements-watch/settlements-data/population |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220611210642/https://peacenow.org.il/en/settlements-watch/settlements-data/population |archive-date=11 June 2022 |access-date=2022-06-01 |website=Peace Now}}</ref><ref name=":42">{{Cite web |last=Role |first=Iran's Regional |title=Israel's Rush to 'Apply Sovereignty' in the West Bank: Timing and Potential Consequences |url=https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/israels-rush-apply-sovereignty-west-bank-timing-and-potential-consequences |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220519193524/https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/israels-rush-apply-sovereignty-west-bank-timing-and-potential-consequences |archive-date=19 May 2022 |access-date=2022-06-01 |website=The Washington Institute}}</ref>{{Failed verification|date=November 2023}} In addition, there are over 140 [[Israeli outpost]]s in the West Bank that are not recognized and are therefore illegal even under Israeli law, but which have nevertheless been provided with infrastructure, water, sewage, and other services by the authorities. They are colloquially known as "[[Israeli outpost|illegal outposts]]".<ref name="btselem">{{cite web |url=https://www.btselem.org/settlements |title=Settlements, B'Tselem |publisher=B'Tselem |access-date=2020-07-10 |archive-date=24 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200724232206/https://www.btselem.org/settlements |url-status=live }}</ref>

As a result of [[Israeli law in the West Bank settlements|the application of Israeli law in the settlements ("Enclave law")]], large portions of Israeli [[Civil law (legal system)|civil law]] are applied to Israeli settlements and to Israelis living in the [[Israeli-occupied territories]].<ref name="Ben-NaftaliSfard2018">{{cite book |author1=Orna Ben-Naftali |author2=Michael Sfard |author3=Hedi Viterbo |title=The ABC of the OPT: A Legal Lexicon of the Israeli Control over the Occupied Palestinian Territory |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Is5TDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA52 |date=10 May 2018 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-107-15652-4 |pages=52– |access-date=15 October 2018 |archive-date=3 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230303182234/https://books.google.com/books?id=Is5TDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA52 |url-status=live }}</ref>

The international consensus is that all Israeli settlements on the West Bank are illegal under international law.<ref>{{cite book |editor=Emma Playfair |title=International Law and the Administration of Occupied Territories: Two Decades of Israeli Occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1992 |location=USA |page=396 |isbn=978-0-19-825297-9}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Cecilia Albin |title=Justice and Fairness in International Negotiation |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2001 |location=Cambridge |page=150 |isbn=978-0-521-79725-2}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Mark Gibney |author2=Stanlislaw Frankowski |title=Judicial Protection of Human Rights: Myth or Reality? |publisher=Praeger/Greenwood |year=1999 |location=Westport, Connecticut |page=72 |isbn=978-0-275-96011-7}}</ref><ref>{{cite newspaper The Times|title=Plia Albeck: Lawyer whose advice underpinned Israel’s controversial settlements policy in the West Bank |date=5 October 2005 |page=71 |url=https://www.thetimes.com/article/plia-albeck-7q6lxlm0lmh | quote=All Israeli settlements on the West Bank beyond the Green Line border are considered illegal under international law. But Albeck, as head of the Civil Department of the State Attorney’s Office, determined that 1.5 million ''dunums'', or 26 per cent of the land in the region, was state land that could be used for building settlements. She thus became the legal architect of Israel’s massive settlement programme under the prime ministers Menahem Begin and Yitzhak Shamir in the 1980s. At her peak Albeck, rather than the Attorney-General, signed the documents that determined whether land was privately owned or could be taken over by the Government.}}</ref> In 2002, the [[European Union]] as a whole found all Israeli settlement activities to be illegal.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://ue.eu.int/uedocs/cms_data/docs/2004/12/22/%7B3FA161D9-6DA6-408F-85CE-20D0EC68DDFF%7D.pdf |title=EU Committee Report |access-date=19 April 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070614203022/http://ue.eu.int/uedocs/cms_data/docs/2004/12/22/%7B3FA161D9-6DA6-408F-85CE-20D0EC68DDFF%7D.pdf |archive-date=14 June 2007|quote=The EU continues to oppose Israeli settlement activities in the Occupied Territories as being illegal under international law}}</ref> Significant portions of the Israeli public similarly oppose the continuing presence of Jewish Israelis in the West Bank and have supported the 2005 settlement relocation.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Dromi |first1=Shai M. |title=Uneasy Settlements: Reparation Politics and the Meanings of Money in the Israeli Withdrawal from Gaza |journal=Sociological Inquiry |year=2014 |volume=84 |issue=1 |doi=10.1111/soin.12028 |pages=294–315 |url=https://zenodo.org/record/976461 |access-date=29 June 2019 |archive-date=26 October 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201026163232/https://zenodo.org/record/976461 |url-status=live }}</ref> The majority of legal scholars hold the settlements to violate international law;<ref name="maj2"/> however, some others, including [[Julius Stone]],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.aijac.org.au/news/article/international-law-and-the-arab-israel-conflict |title=International Law and the Arab Israel Conflict |editor=Ian Lacey |author=Julius Stone |date=13 October 2003 |quote=Extracts from ''Israel and Palestine – Assault on the Law of Nations'' |publisher=[[AIJAC]] |access-date=4 February 2012 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111124001631/http://www.aijac.org.au/news/article/international-law-and-the-arab-israel-conflict |archive-date=24 November 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |url=http://www.commentarymagazine.com/article/the-illegal-settlements-myth/ |title=The Illegal-Settlements Myth |author=David M. Phillips |journal=[[Commentary (magazine)|Commentary]] |date=December 2009 |issue=December 2009 |access-date=4 February 2012 |url-status=live |archive-url=http://archive.wikiwix.com/cache/20120206204134/http://www.commentarymagazine.com/article/the-illegal-settlements-myth/ |archive-date=6 February 2012}}</ref> [[Eugene Rostow]],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.tzemachdovid.org/Facts/islegal1.shtml |title=Resolved: are the settlements legal? Israeli West Bank policies |publisher=Tzemachdovid.org |access-date=9 October 2008 |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080915102140/http://www.tzemachdovid.org/Facts/islegal1.shtml |archive-date=15 September 2008}}</ref> and [[Eugene Kontorovich]],<ref>{{cite web |last1=Kontorovich |first1=Eugene |date=20 November 2019 |title="Israeli settlements in the West Bank do not violate international law," according to Eugene Kontorovich |url=https://www.law.gmu.edu/news/2019/israeli_settlements_do_not_violate_international_law_according_to_eugene_kontorovich |publisher=George Mason University Scalia Law School |access-date=6 March 2025}}</ref> have argued that they are legal under international law.<ref>{{cite news |title=FAQ on Israeli settlements |publisher=[[Canadian Broadcasting Corporation|CBC News]] |date=26 February 2004 |url=http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/middleeast/settlements.html |access-date=27 September 2006 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070605085401/http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/middleeast/settlements.html |archive-date=5 June 2007}}</ref>

Immediately after the 1967 war, [[Theodor Meron]], legal counselor of Israel's Foreign Ministry, advised Israeli ministers in a "top secret" memo that any policy of building settlements across occupied territories violated international law and would "contravene the explicit provisions of the Fourth Geneva Convention".<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/israelis-were-warned-on-illegality-of-settlements-in-1967-memo-469443.html |title=Israelis were warned on illegality of settlements in 1967 memo |author=Donald Macintyre |date=11 March 2006 |newspaper=The Independent |location=London |page=27 |access-date=4 February 2012 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120909101149/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/israelis-were-warned-on-illegality-of-settlements-in-1967-memo-469443.html |archive-date=9 September 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0311-06.htm |title=Israelis Were Warned on Illegality of Settlements in 1967 Memo |publisher=Commondreams.org |access-date=9 October 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080515194230/http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0311-06.htm |archive-date=15 May 2008}}</ref><ref>[[Gershom Gorenberg|Gorenberg, Gershom]]. "The Accidental Empire". New York: Times Books, Henry Holt and Company, 2006. p. 99.</ref> Fifty years later, citing decades of legal scholarship on the subject, Meron reiterated his legal opinion regarding the illegality of Israeli settlements in the Occupied Territories.<ref>{{cite news |first=Theodor |last=Meron |title=The West Bank and International Humanitarian Law on the Eve of the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Six-Day War |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/american-journal-of-international-law/article/west-bank-and-international-humanitarian-law-on-the-eve-of-the-fiftieth-anniversary-of-the-sixday-war/E1D4F9F5B3C43C943D9C3F31EABF79B3 |work=American Journal of International Law |date=10 May 2017 |accessdate=30 July 2022 |archive-date=30 July 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220730134921/https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/american-journal-of-international-law/article/west-bank-and-international-humanitarian-law-on-the-eve-of-the-fiftieth-anniversary-of-the-sixday-war/E1D4F9F5B3C43C943D9C3F31EABF79B3 |url-status=live }}</ref>

The UN Security Council has issued several non-binding resolutions addressing the issue of the settlements. Typical of these is UN Security Council resolution 446 which states that the "practices of Israel in establishing settlements in the Palestinian and other Arab territories occupied since 1967 have no legal validity", and it calls on Israel "as the occupying Power, to abide scrupulously by the [[Fourth Geneva Convention|1949 Fourth Geneva Convention]]"''.''<ref>{{cite web |url=http://domino.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/d744b47860e5c97e85256c40005d01d6/ba123cded3ea84a5852560e50077c2dc |title=UNSC Resolution 446 (1979) of 22 March 1979 |publisher=United Nations |access-date=22 May 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110510095515/http://domino.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/d744b47860e5c97e85256c40005d01d6/ba123cded3ea84a5852560e50077c2dc |archive-date=10 May 2011}}</ref>

The Conference of High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention held in Geneva on 5 December 2001 called upon "the Occupying Power to fully and effectively respect the Fourth Geneva Convention in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and to refrain from perpetrating any violation of the Convention." The High Contracting Parties reaffirmed "the illegality of the settlements in the said territories and of the extension thereof."<ref>[http://www.icrc.org/Web/eng/siteeng0.nsf/iwpList325/D86C9E662022D64E41256C6800366D55 Implementation of the Fourth Geneva Convention in the occupied Palestinian territories: history of a multilateral process (1997–2001)] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060929074057/http://www.icrc.org/Web/Eng/siteeng0.nsf/iwpList325/D86C9E662022D64E41256C6800366D55 |date=29 September 2006 }}, ''International Review of the Red Cross'', 2002 – No. 847.</ref>

On 30 December 2007, [[Israeli Prime Minister]] [[Ehud Olmert]] issued an order requiring approval by both the Israeli Prime Minister and Israeli Defense Minister of all settlement activities (including planning) in the West Bank.<ref>{{cite news |title=Olmert curbs WBank building, expansion and planning |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSL31349948 |work=Reuters|date=31 December 2007 |access-date=31 December 2007 |first1=Adam |last1=Entous |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080103050544/http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSL31349948 |archive-date=3 January 2008}}</ref> The change had little effect with settlements continuing to expand, and new ones being established. On 31 August 2014, Israel announced it was appropriating 400 hectares of land in the West Bank to eventually house 1,000 Israel families. The appropriation was described as the largest in more than 30 years.<ref name="NewSettlement">{{cite news |title=Israel launches massive new West Bank settlement plans |url=http://www.israelherald.com/index.php/sid/225274007 |date=31 August 2014 |access-date=1 September 2014 |work=Israel Herald |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140903124155/http://www.israelherald.com/index.php/sid/225274007 |archive-date=3 September 2014}}</ref> According to reports on Israel Radio, the development is a response to the [[2014 kidnapping and murder of Israeli teenagers]].<ref name="NewSettlement" />