If Israel is building settlements on lands that are supposed to be returned to Palestinians?

Question

Does this mean those lands will not be returned to the palestinians?

Answer 1

Certainly if Israel has its way those lands won't be returned to the Palestinians.  Right now, Israel has the backing of the US administration

A lot of the settlements are built on land owned privately by Palestinians.  Israel simply confiscated people's lands, claiming it was needed for "security," then built Jewish-only settlements on them.  A lot of other land was used by Palestinians and recognized under traditional ways as belonging to a certain tribe or village, but never formally registered under the civil authority.  Israel confiscated a lot of that land too, forbidding Palestinians from registering such land in the land administrative offices but allowing Jews to do so.

It's all completely in violation of international law.  All 15 judges in the International Court of Justice agreed on that point in a ruling a couple of years ago.  The wall Israel is building is illegal as well.  A country isn't allowed to acquire territory by war.  Otherwise, for example, it would have been perfectly legal for Iraq to invade and take over Kuwait in 1990.

Answer 2

This is an attempt to create "accomplished facts", which will be hard to overcome when finally palestinians will be given their own country. It happened before - when Israel was buliding the wall between Israel and the West Bank, they dod not follow exactly official UN-approved borders, but they sometimes built the wall deep inside the West Bank to include Jewish settlements there, without giving any land as a compensation for that. Some people fear that Israelis will want to make this wall the future border between Israel and Palestinian country, which would mean that a lot of West Bank would be annexed to Israel.

Answer 3

No lands are to be "returned" to the arabs now know as palestinians, pawns of the surrounding arab countries and terrorist organisations such as UN, PLO, Hamas, Hezbollah, etc. Israel when it became independent and in all subsequent "peace" treaties has offered parts of Judea, Samaria and Gaza to these most special people in the whole wide world. But the PLO and its sponsors have never accepted this as to become an independent country they would no longer have their professional victim status of the oppressed people by an apartheid state where people eat children. They want Israel to cease to exist, to push her citizens into the Mediterranean. They want it all, so they cannot accept the parts that are repeatedly offered to them. As well, in each negotiation they have first agreed to stop terrorist attacks. As they never have, Israel is under no obligation to fulfil it's part of the treaty, even so, they do again and again and again.

Answer 4

well, nothing is "supposed" to be "returned" to anyone -- the stuff being built is on land that the arabs want as their own. Israel's building there, though, would not change anything in terms of a future handing over of land. israel left the gaza strip and simply left the buildings it had established for the arabs to use.