When a nation removes the homes of its citizens, it violates International Human Rights Law

Eliav Schochetman, Hebrew University Professor of Law Emeritus and Dean of the Shaari Mishpat Law College, gave a lecture a few years ago on the subject of “The implications of forcible expulsion in the light of Israeli civil rights law and in light of international law”

Regarding the constraints on such matters in Israel, Prof. Schochetman mentioned the state of Israel preserves its democratic system under the constraints of ” The Israel Basic Human Rights Law” which oversees Israeli democratic institutions in matters of human rights and civil liberties, much as the US Bill of Rights ensures that the US government can never trample on the human rights and civil liberties of American citizens.

That Israeli Basic Human Rights Law is based on the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to which all democratic governments are adherents.

Prof. Schochetman asserted that in the current situation, given the legal precedents from Israeli court cases and from court cases around the world, any Israeli government decision to expel people from their homes, even in the context of a diplomatic move, would represent a wanton violation of basic human rights and civil liberties that are protected under Israeli and international human rights law.

Prof. Schochetman cited clause 9 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,which states that it is illegal for sovereign governments to expel their own citizens from their homes, their private properties or from their farms.

Since the only group slated for expulsion would be Jews, it may be recalled that the government of Serbia was held liable for international prosecution at the International High Court of Justice in the Hague, under the charge of “ethnic cleansing”, after leaders of Serbia expelled an ethnic minority, solely because of their religion.

Prof. Shochetman noted that no expulsion can take place without a decision of Israel’s Knesset parliament that would hold up under international human rights law and Israeli civil liberties statutes.

Amona obstinacy was with the govt, which was negligent in its examination of the land issues connected to Amona.

The govt decision to expel the people from Amona as a result of this neglect was predicated on finding a place for the people who had been living there for 20 years to be located to a new area.

However, the gov’t chose to ignore fundamental human rights and threw them out in the cold before it had arranged for new homes.

The gov’t had 2 years to make this arrangement. The people were ready to go. However, wanton neglect of the govt won out, with too many media outlets speciously reporting that this was some kind of outpost, and not a community that had thrived for 20 years.