When the New York Times (3/26/19) reported on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s fait accompli pronouncement that nation-states can now seize territories acquired in defensive wars—after President Donald Trump announced via tweet that the United States asserts Israeli sovereignty over the Syrian Golan Heights—it seriously misled readers on the status of Israel’s illegal settlements on the occupied territories of the West Bank and the Golan Heights.
While the Washington Post’s report (3/26/19) on Netanyahu’s pronouncement made it clear that UN Security Council Resolution 497 in 1981 condemned Israel’s formal takeover of the Golan Heights as “null and void and without international legal effect,” the Times report, by David Halbfinger and Isabel Kershner, obscures the illegality of Israeli settlements by attempting to make “practical and legal distinctions” between the settlements in the West Bank and the Golan Heights.
This is not novel behavior. FAIR (6/26/02) has noted before that despite the lack of direct government interference, as is the case with Israeli media (Jerusalem Post, 7/12/18), the mass media in the United States often offer euphemistic descriptions of Israel’s settlements, pretending that they’re less of a blatant violation of international law than they really are.
The Times report repeats unchallenged assertions contrasting the Golan Heights with the West Bank made by American and Israeli officials (one of them actually living in a West Bank settlement), claiming that while the Golan Heights is occupied territory, the West Bank is only “disputed” territory, because it wasn’t “legally part of any sovereign nation” before it was captured by Israel, along with the Golan Heights, during the 1967 Six-Day War.
It also doesn’t challenge Israel’s practice of bargaining with territories it has no legal claim to in exchange for peace agreements, or explain why Trump and Netanyahu’s fiats cannot serve as a legal precedent for other land disputes, instead choosing to repeat official claims that the Golan proclamation is “an incredible, unique situation.”
Although UN Security Council Resolution 242 is criticized because it doesn’t mention Palestinian rights, its unanimous adoption leaves no room for “dispute” in terms of international law: Israeli settlements on the West Bank, and elsewhere on occupied territory, are in violation of international law, because Resolution 242 explicitly forbids the acquisition of territory by war, in addition to requiring Israel’s withdrawal from all the territories occupied in the 1967 war. Resolution 242 has repeatedly been reaffirmed and added onto, as recently as 2017’s Resolution 2334, which calls for an end to Israeli settlements in Palestinian territories, despite Israel’s quibbling over a missing “the” in Resolution 242 (Al-Jazeera, 11/21/17).
Most notably, neither the Post’s nor the Times’ report question the credibility of the US and Israeli officials used as sources. Political scientist Michael Parenti has pointed out (in Inventing Reality) that one way to spread disinformation and lies is through “face-value transmission,” when reporters convey information known to be false without adequate confirmation or pushback, which FAIR (11/11/15) has already documented concerning the Times’ practice of uncritically spreading deceptive statements made by Netanyahu.
Setting aside the implausibility of Israel’s characterization of the Six-Day War as “defensive” when it began as its own surprise invasion (Real News, 6/4/17), neither paper can square official claims with other official admissions that the 1967 invasion was predicated on lies (Intercept, 6/5/17). Nor do they refer to candid reports in other places (e.g., Wall Street Journal, 2/5/17) admitting that mainstream Israeli political discourse assumes the legitimacy of Israel’s claims to the West Bank, in spite of overwhelming international opposition, and that settlements there are built for the purpose of annexation, in hopes of thwarting the creation of a Palestinian state, instead of for defensive purposes. No questions are raised about the validity of the narrative in which Israel is driven by concerns about security—as opposed to expansion—when Israel in the Syrian Civil War is known to be providing medical treatment to Al Qaeda fighters hostile to Israel’s existence, in an effort to deny a foothold for Hezbollah in the Golan Heights (Jerusalem Post, 3/13/15).
However, the Times failed to report that even if one believes that Israel seized the occupied territories out of self-defense, that still wouldn’t change the illegality of the settlements. Articles 2(4) and 39 of the UN Charter outline the proper procedure for determining and acting on security threats, and they forbid any threat or use of force outside the deliberations and recommendations of the UN Security Council, which were designed to prevent countries from unilaterally deciding to use force (Common Dreams, 6/6/16). Article 51 stipulates that the right to individual and collective self-defense arises when an “armed attack occurs” against a member of the UN, which would make the 1967 war launched by Israel illegal.
To be sure, after the headline (a crucial part of the message of every story) and the first five paragraphs laid out Netanyahu’s claims, the Times article did recognize that “legal experts and leaders of many foreign countries” hold that the prime minister’s assertion of a right to territorial conquest “did not comport with international law.” But the report’s failure to critically examine the conventional media narrative around Israel and its Middle Eastern neighbors, and its face-value transmission of false and irrelevant information given by US and Israeli officials, serve more to downplay the illegality of Israeli settlements under international law than to clarify their legal standing.
Despite what the New York Times would have us believe, there are no relevant “practical and legal distinctions” between Israel’s settlements on the West Bank and the Golan Heights; they are all illegal. Trump and Netanyahu’s argument that occupying territory is justifiable in a “defensive” war is correctly dismissed as absurd by legal experts and the international community.
You can send a message to the New York Times at letters@nytimes.com (Twitter:@NYTimes). Please remember that respectful communication is the most effective.
Featured image: New York Times depiction of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu surveying the Golan Heights with US Sen. Lindsey Graham (second from left) and Ambassador David Friedman (right). (Photo: Ronen Zvulun/Reuters.)
Doug Latimer
The paper of (a broken) record
Jay
And here’s the NY Times again pretending anti-Semitism and objections to Israel’s policies are the same:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/04/world/europe/antisemitism-europe-united-states.html
Wondering Woman
Maybe the Ottoman Empire has a different thought Or Babylon, or you know, Rome, had that land for a long time too. Oh wait, maybe Palestine and the people that have lived here continuously should be in charge..
Ariel Barkai
The people who have lived here continuously are the Jews – that’s a mere historical fact. But don’t let the facts get in the way. Arabs and Islam came to this land as part of the Islamic imperialist conquest first in the 7th and then 12th centuries. They are no more Colonialist occupiers than white Afrikaans in South Africa. They just colonized the land a few centuries prior. The Jews however, have never left this land.
william Chandler
We are witnessing the SECOND, slow motion, Israeli SHOAH of the People of Palestine..
They brag about the First SHOAH the Canaanites/Amorites/Philistines/Midianites/PALESTINIANS who were in PALESTINE long before ABRAHAM passed through from Babylon/Ur ……Israel’s “claim” to Palestine is based entirely on War Crimes and GENOCIDE.
“israel” is founded on Genocide, Sexual Enslavement, Conquest and War Crime. Therefore “israel” has no Right or Argument for existing. Actually, ALL Humanity should be united in repulsing “israel”.
Deuteronomy 7:16, 20:16 “And thou shalt consume all the peoples which the Lord thy God shall deliver unto thee; thine eye shall not pity them…thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth.”
KILL THE SICK and CRIPPLED
Numbers c.5 v.2-4 (Being “put out of camp was a Death Sentence0.
KILL HOMOSEXUALS & UNDESIRABLES
Leviticus c.20 v.13 well, really the whole chapter
KILL ALL DISSIDENTS:(Hitler COPIED Moses ordering anyone who questioned him be murdered)
Exodus c.32 v.27
Numbers c.11 v.1-2
Numbers c.16 all
Numbers c.21 v.5-6
Numbers v.26 v.10
KILL anyone who engages in “DIVERSITY” or “INTEGRATION”
Numbers v25 v.4-8
Deuteronomy c.14 v.2
DEHUMANIZE and then EXTERMINATE ALL NON-MEMBERS:
SEXUALLY ENSLAVE any females “who have not KNOWN a man”
a very brief selection, many more in THEIR book.
Numbers c.21 v.03 Canaanites
Numbers c.21 v.24 Amorites
Numbers c.21 v.33-35 Bashan
Numbers c.31 all Midianites
Numbers c.32 v. more Amorites
Deuteronomy c.2 v.34 People of Heshbon
Deuteronomy c.3 v.6 really the whole chapter. threescore cities
Joshua c.12 A list of victims of Israeli GENOCIDE
OCCUPY YOUR VICTIM’S DWELLINGS/LAND
Numbers c.21 v.25
Numbers c.32 v.39
Numbers c.33 v.53
(just to name a FEW)
GENOCIDE CODIFIED IN THEIR RELIGION
Numbers c.33 v.31-34
Deuteronomy c.7 v.2
Deuteronomy c.12 v.28-30
Deuteronomy c.20 v.11-16
TERRORISM CODIFIED IN THEIR RELIGION
Deuteronomy c.2 v.2
Deuteronomy c.7 v.1
Jews SELF-anointed “The CHOSEN People of GOD”
Nazis SELF-anointed “The CHOSEN People of GENETICS”.
TODAY Israel states that it is creating “A PURE Jewish State”
YESTERDAY the Nazis were creating “A PURE German State”
Israel a SOCIALIST state.
Nazis a SOCIALIST state.
And they utterly destroyed all that was in the city, both man and woman, young and old, and ox, and sheep, and ass, with the edge of the sword . . . (Joshua 6:21)
jake
Jews do not practice old Testament Judaism, any more than Christians follow the teachings of Jesus.The question is what is moral and practical for Today
Peter
This comment that Jews lived continuously ignores that most Jews are probably converted Muslims and adopted the Arab language.
Just because Judaism made up 5% of the population 1900s doesn’t give claim to ethnically cleanse the rest of the population.
stevelaudig
Your readers might find this article interesting as the tainted source of the invalid argument.
AN ARTICLE THAT CHANGED THE COURSE OF HISTORY?
Eyal Benvenisti. This contribution is a reflection on the article ‘The Missing Reversioner: Reflections on the Status of
Judea and Samaria’ by Yehuda Z Blum, originally published in (1968) 3 Israel Law Review 279.
What ever the ‘status’ of the territory, we know it wasn’t Israel’s.
Ariel Barkai
It has always been Israel.
william Chandler
The PALESTINIANS were there FIRST and HAVE been there throughout.
Abraham was thrown out of Ur (not Palestine, BABYLON) for being a pimp and a blackmailer, something he did TWICE more in the bible[GEN c12 vs 11-20 & GEN.c20]. Those were not “angels”, that warned Abraham to get out of UR, they were SNITCHES letting him know the city Elders were “on” to him.
Jacob was a weasel who conspired with his mother to decieve his Father and STEAL the birthright from his brother, and after happily accepting meat from Esau his brother, Jacob refused to SHARE his own food. Jacob went near unto Isaac his father; and Isaac felt him, and said, The voice is Jacob’s voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau.—Genesis 27:22
Jacob was SCUM, like ALL his descendents. Jacob and the case of the magical genetics – Found in: Genesis 30:37-39 and Genesis 30: 42 Jacob defrauds Laban There is NO evidence for A King David or King Solomon. David’s kingdom -1000 to 930 BC But
No Official state records exist from any Kingdom near these Fictional Kings.
No records of trade,war ….Nothing.!.
Yisrael Medad
I see from the article and the comments that the legality of Israel’s claim to areas of its historic homeland not under full Israeli sovereignty is doubted.
May I remind all that according to the League of Nations July 1922 decision to award a Mandate to Great Britain for the express purpose of reconstituting the Jewish national home in the territory known as Palestine, the Jewish nation was to be “encourage[d…to] close settlement by Jews on the land, including State lands and waste lands”. In other words, at that time, all the territory of “Palestine” west of the Jordan River (see Article 25) was to be settled by Jews, even if the eventual political primacy was unresolved. At the minimum, a distinction should be made between the basic right to live, construct and plant on that territory and any political status. “Settlements” per se are not illegal.
Add to that the refusal of Arabs to agree to Jewish national identity, their 100 years of terror, their rejection of all diplomatic efforts including several territorial compromises, their 1947-48 war of aggression and much more, plus their own self-identification in the 1920s and 1930s as “Southern Syrians” and their demand that “Palestine” be included in the French Mandate over Syria, it is obvious that Israel’s claim to Judea and Samria override any Arab claim.
Michel Saint-Laurent
You are just another blatant usurper of the rights of the Palestinians. Just about every country in the world says your occupation and ongoing colonisation of Palestine are against international rules. Only you, your puppet USA and a small bunch of nobody countries say otherwise. Your hour of reckoning is approching…!
Ariel Barkai
You are just a schmuck. I’ll leave it there.
Yisrael Medad
I really don’t think you can prove your claim about me, about my fact-based arguments but I do believe your dangerous threats.
william Chandler
According to the Balfour Declaration the “Jewish homeland” is to be located in PALESTINE……. but Jews insist there is NO SUCH THING as PALESTINE ……. therefore Israel is immediately ANNULLED.
The USA acknowledged that the state of Israel is WITHIN Palestine, thereby recognising that Israel is part of Palestine, albeit a Jewish part. It did not state that Palestine was part of Israel, or Jordan or Egypt or Syria or even Iran. Even the actual recognition bears no relation to the current regimes machinations or ambition.
Ariel Barkai
Joshua you have no idea what you are talking about. Resolution 242 does not call for Israeli withdrawal from all the territories seized in the 6 day war as you emphatically state completely incorrectly in paragraph 5. It explicitly calls for withdrawal from “territories” – the use of the word “all” was explicitly left out of the resolution as the victorious state of Israel would never have agreed to a cessation of activity in a military war forced upon her by her Arab neighbors, if forced to withdraw to the 1949 armistice line (which itself was not an internationally recognized border because the Arabs refused to recognize it because to do so would have meant recognizing Israel itself). So you prove you have no idea what the hell you are even talking about. So why are you talking it all. Run along son; no room for amateurs in discussions of Middle East policy debates.
Joshua Cho
Thanks for your idiosyncratic and uncredible interpretation of UN Resolution 242. International law is definitely not on the side of Israel when it comes to its settlements, but you can pretend otherwise.
Ariel Barkai
Another point Joshua to prove this article is “amateur hour”. Go look at a map of Germany in 1938 and compare that to a map of Germany today and tell me again how the acquisition of territory in a defensive war is illegal under international law and not recognized by the international community…or does that only pertain to the Jewish state? Get it together man. You have completely embarrassed yourself. The rest of this article is sheer crap.
Ariel Barkai
Oh one last point of interest – to say the Golan belongs to Syria; Syria no longer exists. The moment a state actor decides to slaughter its own people rather than hold an election and 650,000 people wind up dead and 12,000,000 become refugees, that “state” loses all moral right to claim anything from anyone and to invoke international law about anything. It would be like a convicted felon in bank fraud complaining about losing his ability to get a Service 7 broker license. Further, Syria is really “Occupied Iran”. Let’s all be honest about that. I think you and the other shit heads commenting here should be a little more concerned with the Assad regime and its self slaughter backed by Iran and Hezbollah than Israel rightfully refusing under any circumstance to cede one inch of territory to this murderous regime.
Wondering Woman
Actually Ariel Barkai—–You need to read the Balfour Agreement which specifically did not throw the Palestinians off their land. Like the Israeli land grab, you are trying so hard to take over this page—-but tiresome people who try to rewrite history are often forgotten along with their attempts at argumentation.
william Chandler
The Jews were only in control of Palestine for a few hundred splintered years out of all of Earth’s years. The Palestinians have been there 5000+ years: before, during, and after the Jewish moment. And irony of ironies, the Palestinians that the European Ashkenazis are “wiping out” are in fact the descendants of those very Jews who were there when the Romans took over way back when. European “Jews” are wiping out the real original Jews.
Take a look at the “Maps of War: Imperial History of the Middle East” website to see just how many times that piece of land has changed hands over the millennia. I count seventeen times. http://www.mapsofwar.com/images/EMPIRE17.swf
Jake
There has been a continual Jewish presence in what you call”Palestine”, for thousands of years.Palestine refers to Philistines, an Aegean invader who landed in what is now Gaza. no one knows the relationship of the Canaanites to the biblical Jews, and the Arab peoples came later. Populations shift all the time and all are human. The Jewsw ere driven out of their homes in Europe and the Muslim countries-they are there now-get used to it