law that means nothing

The law is a farce in the occupied territories, whether it is military law or Israeli civil law that is supposed to apply to the Israelis who live in the settlements.

• laws that exist can be interpreted so broadly as to exercise no restraint on the IDF
• rulings of the Israeli High Court can be disregarded repeatedly by the military, as one would expect of a militarized state such as Israel where power lies with force rather than legislation.
  
• laws can be passed specifically to discriminate against Palestinians, in fact the founding law of the State of Israel does so by declaring Israel a Jewish state.
• settlers can disregard law entirely when harassing or stealing land or destroying property of the Palestinians. In fact, IDF soldiers will often stand by or even assist settlers against Palestinians.
  

There's a good example of the meaninglessness of law provided by what has happened at the Derekh Ha’avot outpost, near the Elazar settlement, in the Etzion Bloc. The Etzion bloc is the southernmost of the four settlement blocks shown on the following map, all of them illegally established in occupied territory.


The Israeli High Court of Justice ruled nine years ago that the Derekh Ha’avot outpost was illegal and ordered it stopped and demolished. Neither action happened. Instead, settlers continued to build.

The Israeli group Peace Now petitioned the court, demanding the law be enforced. In 2008 this petition was denied. The reason? The High Court deferred to the military, though Israeli citizens are involved. This, of course, is a green light to all manner of behavior by the settlers in the occupied territories since the Israeli military has shown itself unwilling to restrain them.

Law restraining the Palestinians, however, such as the one forbidding them to build new structures or additions on their own land, is rigorously enforced.

I ask all Americans - would we accept a ruling by the Supreme Court that is not enforced? As you know, the Supreme Court ruled on judicial matters at Guantanamo, outside of the United States, and there was no question that the ruling would be obeyed by the U.S. Army.

In Israel, though, American money continues to flow in regardless of the flagrant disregard of the law. What would Jewish U.S. Supreme Court Justices Felix Frankfurter and Louis Brandeis have said, what would current Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg say?

Frustrated Palestinians who are driven to extremes, to violence, by this outrageous lawlessness are dubbed terrorists - but who is it that truly is stopping at nothing, at no law?

Summarizing the situation at the Derekh Ha’avot outpost, Israeli human rights group B'Tselem in it's report says...

The High Court’s decision, which adopts the state’s position with respect to the Derekh Ha’avot outpost, legitimizes the looting of land and ongoing contravention of the building laws, in this outpost and in all the other settlements, and exempts the law-enforcement authorities from enforcing the law on criminal settlers and lawbreakers. Given the illegality of the settlements in the first place, B'Tselem demands that the government of Israel dismantle the outpost along with the rest of the settlements and immediately enforce the law on the settlers.

Justice for all? Good luck on that!

P.S. This just in - the prohibition on using .22 bullets on protesters is ignored by the IDF