Area C (West Bank)

Area C in blue and light blue. East Jerusalem in red

Area C (Hebrew: שטח C, romanized: Shetakh C; Arabic: منطقة ج, romanized: minṭaqa jīm) is the fully Israeli-controlled and only contiguous territory in the West Bank,[1] defined as the whole area outside the Palestinian enclaves (Areas A and B).[2] Area C constitutes about 61 percent of the West Bank territory, containing most Israeli settlements other than those in East Jerusalem, and more than 99% of the area is off limits or heavily restricted for Palestinians.[3][1] The area was committed in 1995 under the Oslo II Accord to be "gradually transferred to Palestinian jurisdiction" (with an option for land swaps under a final agreement), but such transfer did not happen.[4]: vii  The area is richly endowed with natural resources.[1]

Area C (excluding East Jerusalem), which along with Area B is under Israeli military control since June 1967, is home to roughly 400,000 Israeli settlers,[5] and approximately 300,000 Palestinians, who live in more than 500 residential areas located partially or fully in Area C.[6] The Jewish population in Area C is administered by the Israeli Judea and Samaria Area administration, into which Israeli law is "pipelined", whereas the Palestinian population is directly administered by the Israeli Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories under military law. The Palestinian Authority is responsible for medical and educational services to Palestinians in Area C; however, infrastructure construction and supervision is done by Israel.[7]

The international community considers the settlements in occupied territory to be illegal,[8][9][10][11][12][13] and the United Nations has repeatedly upheld the view that Israel's construction of settlements constitutes a violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention.[14][15][16][17] Israel disputes the position of the international community and the legal arguments that were used to declare the settlements illegal.[18] The "outposts" are in contravention of Israeli law as well.[19]

  1. ^ a b c Niksic, Orhan; Nasser Eddin, Nur; Cali, Massimiliano (10 July 2014). Area C and the Future of the Palestinian Economy. The World Bank. doi:10.1596/978-1-4648-0193-8. hdl:10986/18930. ISBN 978-1-4648-0193-8. The economic significance of Area C lies in that it is the only contiguous territory in the West Bank, which renders it indispensable to connective infrastructure development across the West Bank... Area C is richly endowed with natural resources and it is contiguous, whereas Areas A and B are smaller territorial islands... Less than 1 percent of Area C, which is already built up, is designated by the Israeli authorities for Palestinian use; the remainder is heavily restricted or off-limits to Palestinians, with 68 percent reserved for Israeli settlements, c. 21 percent for closed military zones, and c. 9 percent for nature reserves... In practice it is virtually impossible for Palestinians to obtain construction permits for residential or economic purposes, even within existing Palestinian villages in Area C... The same is true for the extraction of natural resources and development of public infrastructure.
  2. ^ In the definition of West Bank Areas in the Oslo II Accord it is defined as "areas of the West Bank outside Areas A and B".
  3. ^ The demise of the Oslo process. Joel Beinin, MERIP, 26 March 1999. "In area B, consisting of about 23 percent of the territory (including some 440 villages and their surrounding lands), the Palestinians are responsible for certain municipal functions, while joint Israeli-Palestinian patrols maintain internal security. Area C, consisting of about 74 percent of the territory including all of the 145 settlements and the new Jewish neighborhoods in and around East Jerusalem, remains under full Israeli control".
  4. ^ "Area C and the future of Palestinian economy" (PDF). World Bank. Retrieved 7 September 2015.
  5. ^ "Localities and Population, by Population Group, District, Sub-District and Natural Region". Israel Central Bureau of Statistics. 2016. Retrieved 4 September 2016.
  6. ^ Hass, Amira (5 March 2014). "UN Report: 300,000 Palestinians Live in Area C of West Bank". Haaretz. Retrieved 27 April 2017.
  7. ^ "Acting the Landlord: Israel's policy in Area C, the West Bank" (PDF). B'Tselem. Retrieved 7 September 2015.
  8. ^ Roberts, Adam (1990). "Prolonged Military Occupation: The Israeli-Occupied Territories Since 1967". The American Journal of International Law. 84 (1). American Society of International Law: 85–86. doi:10.2307/2203016. JSTOR 2203016. S2CID 145514740. The international community has taken a critical view of both deportations and settlements as being contrary to international law. General Assembly resolutions have condemned the deportations since 1969, and have done so by overwhelming majorities in recent years. Likewise, they have consistently deplored the establishment of settlements, and have done so by overwhelming majorities throughout the period (since the end of 1976) of the rapid expansion in their numbers. The Security Council has also been critical of deportations and settlements; and other bodies have viewed them as an obstacle to peace, and illegal under international law.
  9. ^ Pertile, Marco (2005). "'Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory': A Missed Opportunity for International Humanitarian Law?". In Conforti, Benedetto; Bravo, Luigi (eds.). The Italian Yearbook of International Law. Vol. 14. Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. p. 141. ISBN 978-90-04-15027-0. the establishment of the Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory has been considered illegal by the international community and by the majority of legal scholars.
  10. ^ Barak-Erez, Daphne (2006). "Israel: The security barrier—between international law, constitutional law, and domestic judicial review". International Journal of Constitutional Law. 4 (3). Oxford University Press: 548. doi:10.1093/icon/mol021. The real controversy hovering over all the litigation on the security barrier concerns the fate of the Israeli settlements in the occupied territories. Since 1967, Israel has allowed and even encouraged its citizens to live in the new settlements established in the territories, motivated by religious and national sentiments attached to the history of the Jewish nation in the land of Israel. This policy has also been justified in terms of security interests, taking into consideration the dangerous geographic circumstances of Israel before 1967 (where Israeli areas on the Mediterranean coast were potentially threatened by Jordanian control of the West Bank ridge). The international community, for its part, has viewed this policy as patently illegal, based on the provisions of the Fourth Geneva Convention that prohibit moving populations to or from territories under occupation.
  11. ^ Drew, Catriona (1997). "Self-determination and population transfer". In Bowen, Stephen (ed.). Human rights, self-determination and political change in the occupied Palestinian Hkterritories. International studies in human rights. Vol. 52. Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. pp. 151–152. ISBN 978-90-411-0502-8. It can thus clearly be concluded that the transfer of Israeli settlers into the occupied territories violates not only the laws of belligerent occupation but the Palestinian right of self-determination under international law. The question remains, however, whether this is of any practical value. In other words, given the view of the international community that the Israeli settlements are illegal under the law if belligerent occupation...
  12. ^ International Labour Organization (2005). "The situation of workers of the occupied Arab territories" (PDF). p. 14. The international community considers Israeli settlements within the occupied territories illegal and in breach of, inter alia, United Nations Security Council resolution 465 of 1 March 1980 calling on Israel "to dismantle the existing settlements and in particular to cease, on an urgent basis, the establishment, construction and planning of settlements in the Arab territories occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem".
  13. ^ Civilian and military presence as strategies of territorial control: The Arab-Israel conflict, David Newman, Political Geography Quarterly Volume 8, Issue 3, July 1989, Pages 215–227
  14. ^ "UN Security Council Resolution 465". Archived from the original on 19 September 2015.
  15. ^ "What next for Gaza and West Bank?". BBC. 30 August 2005. Retrieved 5 January 2010. Most Israelis support the pullout, but some feel the government has given in to Palestinian militant groups, and worry that further withdrawals will follow. Palestinian critics point out that Gaza will remain under Israeli control, and that they are being denied a political say in the disengagement process.
  16. ^ Yearbook of the United Nations 2005. United Nations Publications. 2007. p. 514. ISBN 9789211009675. The Israeli Government was preparing to implement an unprecedented initiative: the disengagement of all Israeli civilians and forces from the Gaza Strip and the dismantling of four settlements in the northern West Bank.[permanent dead link‍]
  17. ^ Yael Yishai (1987). Land Or Peace. Hoover Press. p. 58. ISBN 9780817985233. During 1982 Israel's government stuck to its territorial policy in word and deed. All the settlements in Sinai were evacuated in accordance with the Camp David Accords, but settlement activity in the other territories continued uninterrupted. A few days after the final withdrawal from Sinai had been completed, Begin announced that he would introduce a resolution barring future governments from dismantling settlements, even as a result of peace negotiations.
  18. ^ "Israel, the Conflict and Peace: Answers to frequently asked questions". Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs. November 2007. Are Israeli settlements legal?
  19. ^ "Under Threat: Demolition orders in Area C of the West Bank" (PDF). United Nations. Archived from the original (PDF) on 22 November 2015. Retrieved 7 September 2015.