" Israelis entered the West Bank, built houses, and then were protected by the Israeli military and intwined with the infrastructure of Israel proper."

And how is that forcible deportation?

"Are you really saying that because the government didn't physically empty Tel Aviv neighborhoods and drive those people to a Judean hilltop then this isn't transfer?"

I'm saying that if I voluntarily move from Ohio to Afghanistan, the government isn't "transferring" me. Transfer implies force, which was the whole point of article 49.

"If it's that easy to get around the modern international prohibition on colonization"

It's not a prohibition on colonization. It's a prohibition on uprooting civilian lives by force. The purpose of the article is to protect civilian life, not some treatise on why colonies are illegal.

"The ICJ says the wall and the settlements are illegal. The UN says they're illegal."

The ICJ opinion on the settlements is quite frankly, strange. The ICJ seems to think that GA resolutions are binding law, and that the fact that the Security Council rejected similar declarations of illegality are irrelevant. GA resolutions most certainly are not binding law and if that's what you're going to use to claim illegality that's pretty weak. The GA can only make recommendations, it cannot grant the ICJ any kind of authority to make determinations over ownership of the territories.

Just because you assert it to be a settled issue doesn't make it so. As you even admit, the settlement issue is a bilateral problem and most certainly not settled by the parties involved.

"This isn't a controverisal issue unless your familiarity with the conflict is at a Glenn Beck level of understanding."

Your efforts to paint everyone who disagrees with you as extreme are not an adequate replacement for an actual understanding of the legality of the settlements.

"IDF forces did not enter Sabra and Shatil and did not perpetuate the massacre."

Uh... Who is claiming that they did?

The opening paragraph of the article you posted claims that Sharon's name is 'synonymous' with the killings in the refugee camps, even though he didn't commit those atrocities.

But he is remembered for letting it happen...

English, Putin, Do you speak it?

Forces under his direct command looked the other way (to put it generously) while forces indirectly under his command did commit those atrocities. Yamashita was hanged for about the same thing.

Putin33, Sharon let the massacre happen, he didn't carry it out. No one claims he or the IDF committed the atrocities. Is this the first time you've heard about this? It's kind of a well known thing.

As for the settlements, you're really just completely wrong. It is you, not I, who lacks an actual understanding of the legality of the settlements. If the virtual unanimity of judicial, scholarly, and political opinion on the matter isn't enough to convince you they're illegal then nothing will. Nothing can.

"As you even admit, the settlement issue is a bilateral problem and most certainly not settled by the parties involved."

Sorry, I had to address this galling bit of reading miscomprehension. It is the legality of the settlements that is a settled issue, not their ultimate status. Two separate questions.

@Putin, he doesn't have to had anything to do with theassacre, he could have been asleep in his bed, away in a hospital with man-flu, or on skype to his mother... If the first thing you think of when you hear his name is 'Oh the leader from the Shabra and Shatila massacre' then his name is synonymous with those killings.

Although I have nothing much to say about Sharon himself...

...Putin33's admiration for Sharon, in spite of Sharon being a big proponent of Israeli policies that Putin33 objects to, actually *isn't* a surprise for one simple reason which is revealed in this thread's topic: "strongman".

Putin33 loves strength, and yearns to mewl before strength. Putin33 respects power and authority.

I think it has more to do with his obsession with being a contrarian. Not only does he have to be a young American Stalinist in 2014, he has to be one who unconditionally supports Israel. That's as rare as an albino unicorn.

aren't all unicorns albino?

Even the Invisible Pink ones?

Especially Invisible Pink ones!

Glad to see you all picked up on the point I was making

I'm not convinced Putin's rather exotic mixture of political views comes from an obsession with being a contrarian. Even though he can be an obnoxious contrarian, I'm not convinced it's an obsession.

Putin33 yearns to submit to power. That is the common element across his various viewpoints. Putin33 despises the West because it doesn't produce sufficiently powerful leaders for him to submit to.

Oh what a surprise, the usual suspects turning a thread into an ad hominem fest.

Oh, the irony... ^

Right, I forgot about your plethora of substance-filled posts.

Ad hominem isn't okay, unless Putin does it, then it's cool.

This was an actual discussion and I wasn't the one who changed that fact.

Wake me up when you ever say anything of substance, ever.

Even though this thread seems semi-dead I thought i'd point out that while the Israeli government may not have forcibly "transferred" people into the west bank, Sharon's recirculation of the west bank completely ruined all of the peace attempts made by Ehud Barak at the camp david accords.

Yeah, now it's ad hominem. You do it as well, Putin33. I'm just pointing out that one way to reconcile the seeming contradiction in your opinions is to see the underlying yearning to submit to authority.

Your armchair psycho-analysis that you love to do is as pathetic as it is trite.

You yearn to hate everything that isn't familiar to you, and so any positive comment about anything is interpreted as "yearning to submit".

And this coterie of nasties seems to forget that I've been very critical of Israel's foreign policy, so kindly get your facts straight.

Just woke up to this post, and see that it's contentious whether Sharon was responsible for Sabra and Shatila. Interesting, because the Israeli commission who researched the massacres surely thought so:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kahan_Commission