Hanna Issa the Secretary General of the Muslim-Christian Committee to Support Occupied Jerusalem and Holy Sites warned on Sunday of a draft law submitted by the Chairman of the Knesset’s House Committee MK David Bitton and the Israeli minister of transportation Yisrael Katz which proposes the expulsion of the families of the Palestinians who carry out attacks against the Israelis to the West Bank and abroad.
Issa considered the Israeli draft law a blatant challenge to the international humanitarian law and a violation of the Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention which prohibits the forcible individual or mass expulsion of protected persons from the occupied territory to other occupied territory in the country or to other countries.
The professor of international law said in a press statement on Sunday that the Israeli occupation authorities (IOA) seek to expel the Palestinians from their homes in Jerusalem and resettle a large number of Israeli settlers in the city in a flagrant violation of the international laws and norms.
The legal specialist pointed to the Oslo agreement of 1995 which stated that “the West Bank including East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip are one geographical unit” which means that the provisions of the international humanitarian law apply to them.
He noted that the UN Security Council condemned in the first paragraph of the resolution No. 799 of 1992 the measure taken by Israel of deporting hundreds of Palestinian civilians to Marj al-Zohour to southern Lebanon and expressed its complete opposition to any such deportation by Israel.
He added that the Security Council reaffirmed in the second paragraph of the resolution the applicability of the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 to all occupied Palestinian territories including Jerusalem and that the deportation of the civilians is considered a violation of Israel’s commitments toward the convention.
Issa affirmed that the proposed draft law comes in consistency with the military order No. 1650 which calls for the expulsion of Palestinians under the pretext that they are infiltrators not citizens. He continued that approving this draft law means that Israel disavows the agreements signed with the Palestine Liberation Organization from one side and seeks to Judaize occupied Jerusalem and expel its indigenous people from another.
The draft law once ratified by the Knesset will lead to the expulsion of the families of those who carry out attacks. If they are from Jerusalem or have blue IDs they will be expelled to the West Bank or abroad and if they are from the West Bank they will be expelled abroad under the justification that this will act as a deterrent to those who intend to conduct attacks.
