Comments on: Tony Davies – Resisting Dispossession in Jerusalem http://palestinethinktank.com/2009/05/11/tony-davies-resisting-dispossession-in-jerusalem/ Free Minds for a Free Palestine Sat, 21 Nov 2009 01:10:11 +0300 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 hourly 1 By: Oskar Altpapier http://palestinethinktank.com/2009/05/11/tony-davies-resisting-dispossession-in-jerusalem/#comment-8633 Oskar Altpapier Tue, 12 May 2009 22:15:54 +0000 http://palestinethinktank.com/2009/05/11/tony-davies-resisting-dispossession-in-jerusalem/#comment-8633 "Under the 1947 UN Partition Plan, Jerusalem was declared an international entity to be controlled by the UN. In 1967 Israel took over the whole city by force. According to international law, East Jerusalem is occupied territory, so it is illegal for Israel to settle its own citizens here." This statement is correct, but misleading. West Jerusalem was occupied by Israel in 1948 and illegally annexed in 1949; East Jerusalem was occupied and illegally annexed in 1967. Both these annexations are equally illegal, and equally unrecognized by the international community, which, for that reason has its embassies in Tel Aviv, not in Jerusalem (any part of it). It is significant that not even the Palestinian recognition-under-duress of Israel as a Jewish state has changed that. And while Israel may legally declare Jerusalem to be its capital, this is legally an extraterritorial capital, and doesn't change Israel's legal status as occupying power in ALL of Jerusalem, and Jerusalem's legal status as a corpus separatum as per the 1947 UN resolution underlying the founding of the Israeli state. "Under the 1947 UN Partition Plan, Jerusalem was declared an international entity to be controlled by the UN. In 1967 Israel took over the whole city by force. According to international law, East Jerusalem is occupied territory, so it is illegal for Israel to settle its own citizens here."

This statement is correct, but misleading.
West Jerusalem was occupied by Israel in 1948 and illegally annexed in 1949;
East Jerusalem was occupied and illegally annexed in 1967.

Both these annexations are equally illegal, and equally unrecognized by the international community, which, for that reason has its embassies in Tel Aviv, not in Jerusalem (any part of it). It is significant that not even the Palestinian recognition-under-duress of Israel as a Jewish state has changed that. And while Israel may legally declare Jerusalem to be its capital, this is legally an extraterritorial capital, and doesn't change Israel's legal status as occupying power in ALL of Jerusalem, and Jerusalem's legal status as a corpus separatum as per the 1947 UN resolution underlying the founding of the Israeli state.

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