The Fourth Geneva Convention
Many critics of Israel's policy cite the
Fourth Geneva Convention to support their assertion that the "settlements"--civilian cities, towns and villages--in the West Bank (and formerly in Gaza) are illegal under international law. In fact, the Geneva Convention says nothing about such settlements. The often-referenced
Article 49 reads, in its entirety:
Individual or mass forcible transfers, as well as deportations of protected persons from occupied territory to the territory of the Occupying Power or to that of any other country, occupied or not, are prohibited, regardless of their motive.
Nevertheless, the Occupying Power may undertake total or partial evacuation of a given area if the security of the population or imperative military reasons do demand. Such evacuations may not involve the displacement of protected persons outside the bounds of the occupied territory except when for material reasons it is impossible to avoid such displacement. Persons thus evacuated shall be transferred back to their homes as soon as hostilities in the area in question have ceased.
The Occupying Power undertaking such transfers or evacuations shall ensure, to the greatest practicable extent, that proper accommodation is provided to receive the protected persons, that the removals are effected in satisfactory conditions of hygiene, health, safety and nutrition, and that members of the same family are not separated.
The Protecting Power shall be informed of any transfers and evacuations as soon as they have taken place.
The Occupying Power shall not detain protected persons in an area particularly exposed to the dangers of war unless the security of the population or imperative military reasons so demand.
The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.
Article 49 says nothing about the voluntary migration of civilians into Occupied areas, and clearly does not prohibit it.
On the other hand, Article 3 of the same Convention states explicitly that the intentional targeting of civilian populations, as is done routinely by Palestinian terrorists, is a clear violation of international law:
Persons taking no active part in the hostilities, including members of armed forces who have laid down their arms and those placed hors de combat by sickness, wounds, detention, or any other cause, shall in all circumstances be treated humanely, without any adverse distinction founded on race, colour, religion or faith, sex, birth or wealth, or any other similar criteria.
To this end, the following acts are and shall remain prohibited at any time and in any place whatsoever with respect to the above-mentioned persons:
(a) Violence to life and person, in particular murder of all kinds, mutilation, cruel treatment and torture;
(b) Taking of hostages;
(c) Outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment;
(d) The passing of sentences and the carrying out of executions without previous judgment pronounced by a regularly constituted court, affording all the judicial guarantees which are recognized as indispensable by civilized peoples.
Similarly, Article 18 prohibits the intentional targeting of civilian hospitals, as was done by Hezbollah during the summer of 2006.
Article 28 states explicitly that the presence of civilians, whether incidental (as bystanders) or intentional (as human shields) does not "render certain points or areas immune from military operations."