Ignorance Is No Excuse

This is what James Hider claims in the London Times:

"Under the Geneva Conventions, however, it is illegal to settle civilians on land captured in war, which is why the international community condemns the move into the Palestinian territories.

I left this comment there and hope it will appear soon:

I would suggest that what Mr. Hilder has written, - "Under the Geneva Conventions, however, it is illegal to settle civilians on land captured in war" - is quite incorrect for two reasons. First, the actual language of Para. 49 reads: "The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies." Since Jews lived there for centuries and up until 1948, only being forcibly ethnically cleansed from Jerusalem's Old City, Hebron, Nablus, Jenin, Gaza, Bet Haarvah, Gush Etzion, etc., this restriction cannot apply. Secondly, since the land area of Judea and Samaria, erroneously termed the West Bank stemming from an illegal occupation and then annexation by Jordan only recognized by Gt Britain in 1950, was part of the original Mandate which guaranteed Jews the right of "close settlement on the land" and whereas the Arabs rejected the 1947 UN partition, the area is residually at least open for Jewish residency.