Carr sideswipes Jews on Palestine

Responding to a query from on-line news service JWire - Carr's officehas issued the following response:

I have been advised that 'Israeli settlement activity is a violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention (to which Israel is a party).

The applicability of the Fourth Geneva Convention to the Occupied Palestinian Territory is widely accepted

Does "wide acceptance" in the absence of any legally binding judgement make it legal? Australia's most distinguished professor of international law - the late Professor Stone - disagrees that the Fourth Geneva Convention applies to the West Bank - as do other international jurists.

The statement continues:

For example, the annual GA resolution on the applicability of the Fourth Geneva Convention to the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and the other occupied territories, was adopted at UNGA67 on 15 November 2012 by 164 in favour; six against; four abstentions.

General Assembly resolutions have no binding effect in international law. Is Carr unaware of that fact?

Carr then asserts:

Article 49(6) of the Fourth Geneva Convention (on the protection of civilians in time of war) provides that "the Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.

True - but Israel has not deported or transferred parts of its own civilian population into the West Bank. Jewish settlement there has been voluntary - resuming Jewish settlement that existed before 1948 when Jews living in the West Bank were driven out and expelled from their homes and businesses by six invading Arab armies.

Carr ends his explanation with following statement:

In its 2004 Advisory Opinion on the Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall on Occupied Palestinian Territories, the ICJ unanimously concluded that the Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (including East Jerusalem) had been established in breach of international law.

The Security Council has also, over time, described Israeli settlement activity as having "no legal validity'.

Is Carr unaware that the Advisory Opinion is non- binding, was made without any consideration of the Mandate and the UN Charter and that Security Council "descriptions" also have no binding legal effect.