38
parlor meetings, we asked the candidates to
work with us to establish facts on the ground,
prevent Palestinian Authority (PA) encroachments,
and enhance security — all towards
rendering division of Israel’s capital impossible,
though by most accounts this already is
Jerusalem’s reality.
Our collaboration with the International
Committee for Har Hazeitim (ICHH) – to
protect and restore the Mount of Olives, the
oldest and holiest Jewish cemetery – netted us
the very first post-election meeting granted by
Mayor of Jerusalem Moshe Lion. We also had
a productive meeting with Prime Minister
Netanyahu’s Chief of Staff Yoav Horowitz and
a chat with Bibi himself. In addition, we met
with MK Yoav Ben-Tzur (Shas), head of the
Mount of Olives 67-member Knesset caucus,
to plan a conference devoted to our eastern
Jerusalem goals and how to achieve them.
Cancelling Hansell
In mid-2018, MK Nissan Slomiansky (Bayit
Yehudi), chair of the Knesset Law Committee,
wrote a letter to U.S. Ambassador to Israel
David Friedman, requesting help on revoking
the 1978 Hansell Memorandum. He also
reached out to ZOA Israel to assist in moving
his initiative forward.
During the Jimmy Carter administration,
Secretary of State Cyrus Vance asked the State
Department’s chief legal counsel, Herbert
Hansell, to draft a legal opinion regarding Israel's
Judea and Samaria communities. While
Hansell concluded that establishing civilian
settlements in these areas was inconsistent
with international law, he himself believed
his ruling was controversial, as it negated the
opinion of American legal experts, such as
Yale Law School Dean Eugene Rostow.
Though President Ronald Reagan distanced
U.S. government policy from treating settlements
as a legal matter, the Memorandum was
not officially rescinded. Rather, it has continued
to serve as a cudgel to censure and delegitimize
Israel. For example, President Barack
Obama failed to extend the veto that would
have thwarted Security Council Resolution
2334; reportedly, Ambassador Samantha Powers
and Secretary of State John Kerry invoked
the Memorandum’s principles to validate this
infamous decision. In addition, J Street relies
on the Memorandum to justify its militancy
against tax deductibility for pro-Israel causes.
It has been suggested that the Memorandum
could be deployed to hold Israel to account
in The Hague, turning the building of houses
and nurseries into a war crime.
Since 2013, ZOA Israel’s Legal Grounds
Campaign has been advancing an interpretation
of international law that does not view
building and residing in Israel’s post-1967
territories as a “belligerent occupation” or
“flagrant violation.” When approached last
year, ZOA Israel gladly took up the promotion
of Slomiansky’s letter with the U.S. Embassy,
with other State Department officials,
and with U.S. lawmakers, including Senators
Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Mike Lee (R-UT),
Congressmen Lee Zeldin (R-NY), Dr. Andy
Harris (R-MD) and Andy Barr (R-KY), and
then-Congressman (now-Governor of Florida)
Ron DeSantis, when each was visiting
Israel.
More recently, senior Israeli officials and Israeli
activists who back the revocation of the
Hansell Memorandum have urged us to convey
their concern that the Memorandum will
be used to Israel’s detriment, unless it is proactively
revoked during the Israel-friendly Trump
administration. ZOA Israel re-ignited interest
in this idea while on Capitol Hill last January
and presently, a number of senior U.S. officials
are discussing the best ways to pursue it. Congressman
Doug Lamborn (R-CO) was among
those who asked ZOA Israel to draft a Sense of
Congress letter addressed to President Trump,
in favor of the revocation.
Since 2013,
ZOA Israel’s
Legal
Grounds
Campaign
has been
advancing
an interpretation
of
international
law that
does not
view building
and
residing in
Israel’s post-
1967 territories
as a
“belligerent
occupation”
or “flagrant
violation.”
ZOA Israel