Legal Status
Jewish settlements are widely regarded by international community as illegal under international law according to Fourth Geneva Convention (article 49), which prohibits an occupying power transferring citizens from its own territory to occupied territory. Israel disputes that the Fourth Geneva Convention applies to the Palestinian territories as they had not been legally held by a sovereign prior to Israel taking control of them. This view has been rejected by the International Court of Justice and the International Committee of the Red Cross.
According to Peace Now, private Palestinian property makes up 96.85% of the land that Beit El, along with the nearby Israeli outposts of Beit El East and Jabel Artis, is built on. The documents in the Beit El land deal, involving the wives of the Beit El rosh yeshiva apparently buying the land from a dead man, were, according to one probe, based on forged documents. In a suit before the High Court of Israel, the state notified the court that the company developing the Ulpana neighbourhood of the town, Gush Emunim's Amana company, was aware that the ostensible seller of the land, a 7 year old Palestinian child, was not its legal owner at the time.
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