ISRAEL / PALESTINE

40 Years of Occupation:

This is what the UN Security Council agreed in November 1967, after the Arab-Israeli 6-day war:

The Security Council;

Expressing its continuing concern with the grave situation in the Middle East,

Emphasizing the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war and the need to work for a just and lasting peace in which every State in the area can live in security...

1. Affirms that the fulfillment of Charter principles requires the establishment of a just and lasting peace in the Middle East which should include the application of both the following principles:

(i) Withdrawal of Israeli armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict;
(ii) Termination of all claims or states of belligerency...

From UN Resolution 242 (November 1967).

And this is what the occupied West Bank looks like, 40 years on:

Map taken from The Humanitarian Impact of the West Bank Barrier on Palestinian Communities (UNOCHA)

This is what the 4th Geneva Convention says about an occupying power and the land it occupies:

Convention (IV) relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War. Geneva, 12 August 1949.

The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.

From Article 49

And this is what East Jerusalem looks like, 40 years after the illegal occupation began.

• The faint green dotted line (the 'Green Line') represents the armistice line established after the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. Land to the right of the line was taken (illegally) by Israel in 1967, and is still occupied (illegally) today.
• The purple blobs on the map are new Israeli settlements - Jews only - built up since 1967 on occupied (and confiscated) land - despite the Security Council Resolution (and others), despite the Geneva Convention, and despite Israel's own agreement to freeze settlement building (eg under the Road Map and the Oslo accords).
• The orange line is the line of the criminal apartheid wall, condemned by the International Court of Justice.

This is what the international court said in its ruling (July 2004):

"The construction of the wall being built by Israel... in the occupied Palestinian Territory, including in and around East Jerusalem... [is] contrary to international law. Israel is under obligation... to dismantle forthwith the structure... [and] make reparation for all damage caused...”

International Court of Justice Ruling, July 9, 2004

The UK went to war in one part of the Middle East because (according to one version) Saddam Hussein refused to comply with international law. Yet we send trade and aid and weapons to another country of the Middle East, another violator of the law, to perpetuate another war and help the occupier build upon its gains.

Should we stop arming Israel while it builds on another people's land at gunpoint?

Apparently not:

We do not believe the current situation in the region would be improved by imposing an arms embargo on Israel.

From the UK Foreign Office website