Jessica Montell, Executive Director of B’Tselem, argues that the dismantling of an Israeli settlement in the West Bank under a recent court order is a significant step forward for the rule of law, but is only the first step in ending an illegal settlement enterprise…

Earlier this month, the Supreme Court of Israel ordered the state to dismantle Migron, an Israeli settlement outpost in the West Bank. This is a significant judgment for the rule of law in Israel. However, implementation of this ruling would only be one small step in rectifying the wrongs of Israel’s settlement enterprise.

The Migron outpost lies on a hill northeast of Jerusalem. It was founded in 1999 and expanded in 2002. It now houses some 250 people and is the largest of the 100 or so outposts established in the West Bank.

All Israeli settlements in the West Bank violate the international humanitarian law prohibition on moving the population of an occupying power into occupied territory. The outposts also violate Israeli law; they were built without government approval and without the necessary building permits. In many cases, the land is Palestinian private property. Migron was built on land belonging to Palestinians from the nearby villages of Burqah and Deir Dubwan. This fact is not disputed by Israeli officials. Despite this, the law enforcement authorities—the Civil Administration, the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Justice—have never taken any measures to prevent the theft of land and construction in the outpost. In fact, the authorities assisted in building the infrastructure for the outpost.

The petition to dismantle Migron was filed in June 2006 by the Israeli organization Peace Now. Throughout the years of legal proceedings, the residents continued to build unlawfully—including construction of public buildings and three permanent structures—while the law enforcement authorities did nothing substantial to prevent it. Now the court has ruled Migron must be removed within eight months, by the end of March 2012. The last time the court gave an order of this kind was in 1979, when it ordered the state to dismantle the Elon Moreh settlement, which had been built on privately owned Palestinian land. The Elon Moreh settlement was subsequently rebuilt in an adjacent area that was declared “state land,” and the government announced that it would no longer requisition private land to build settlements. However, this did not stop settlement construction on Palestinian private property.

The settlement enterprise severely harms the property rights of individual Palestinians. Settlements also violate collective rights of the Palestinian people to enjoy their natural resources: land, as well as water and other resources. They also have resulted in a dualist and highly discriminatory legal system in the West Bank, where settlers enjoy all the rights and benefits of the Israeli democracy while their Palestinian neighbors live under military occupation.

Certainly, the Migron outpost must be dismantled and the land returned to its rightful owners. However, given the illegality of the entire settlement enterprise under international law, and the grave infringement of Palestinians’ human rights they cause, dismantling Migron is only the first step in bringing Israeli policy in line with its legal obligations.

Jessica Montell is the author of B’Tselem’s comprehensive report Prisoners of Peace: Administrative Detention in the Oslo Process and numerous articles on human rights, international humanitarian law and counter-terror policies. Previously, Montell worked at HaMoked, another Israeli human rights organization, and served as a consultant to Human Rights First. She can be found on Twitter at @JessicaMontell.

Suggested citation: Jessica Montell, Dismantling Migron: The First Step in Meeting International Obligations, JURIST – Hotline, Aug. 16, 2011, http://jurist.org/hotline/2011/08/jessica-montell-migron-ruling.php.