Itay Epshtain Profile picture
Feb 25 11 tweets 9 min read
What does #Russia in relation to #Ukraine have in common - from the perspective of (mis)application of international law - with #Israel in relation to #Palestine? The answer is the obscure 'Missing Reversioner Doctrine.' A thread: Image
In 1968, with the nascent #Israeli occupation of #Palestinian territory, Prof. Yehuda Blum penned the ‘The Missing Reversioner: Reflections on the Status of Judea and Samaria’. Blum argued that there were no reversionary rights of an ousted legitimate government to the territory Image
In other words, he concluded that ‘those rules of belligerent occupation directed to safeguarding that sovereign’s reversionary rights had no application to #Israel’s control of the #WestBank and #Gaza. Hence, Israeli possession comes from an absolute title, not an occupation.
Later on, serving as Israel's ambassador to the #UN, Blum would go on to argue that ‘we do not regard ourselves as foreigners in those areas. The Israeli villages in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza are there as of right and are there to stay [...] Image
[...] No Arab inhabitants have been displaced by the establishment of the villages in question,' he concluded. Blum's position, as articulated in 1968, became Israel's official position, and remains its official position to this very day.
The Missing Reversioner Doctrine was authoritatively rejected by numerous #UN General Assembly, #SecurityCouncil, and Human Right Council resolutions, including in drafts under consideration for #HRC49. Likewise, the @CIJ_ICJ in the 2004 Wall Opinion dismissed it outright. Image
Rejected by nearly every scholar as a 'less than a serious effort to elucidate the legal questions.' the Missing Reversioner Doctrine enjoys an unfortunate renaissance with @KremlinRussia_E claims in #UkraineInvasion.
#Russia's Putin has pivoted towards a claim - similar to that of #Israel - that in the #Kyiv there is no reversionary, no rightful sovereign, and therefore Russia is not impeding the political independence and territorial integrity of the #Ukraine. Image
Over coming days #Russia would likely complete its #UkraineInvasion and bring it under belligerent occupation. Taking a page from the proverbial #Israeli textbook in #Palestine, it will claim that a 'missing reversioner' invalidates the law of occupation.
This could be particularly damaging to the protection of #Ukrainian civilians under the military rule of #Russia - an occupying power - that would refuse to give effect to the provisions of #IHL, and could undermine impartial humanitarian organizations seeking to provide relief.

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More from @EpshtainItay

Feb 27
According to @SCRtweets, later this evening the Security Council is expected to vote on a draft resolution calling for an “emergency special session” (ESS) of the @UN General Assembly to consider and recommend collective action on the situation in #Ukraine. Image
The draft resolution, tabled by @AlMissionUN and @USUN, is a #unitingforpeace resolution, referring a situation in which its permanent members are deadlocked to the General Assembly. If adopted, it would be the first such resolution the Council has adopted in four decades. Image
While the General Assembly could choose to discuss and vote on the current #RussiaUkraine conflict independently, the goal of several Council members is to send a strong political signal by pursuing a Security Council. “Uniting for Peace” resolution.
Read 5 tweets
Feb 24
In #UkraineInvasion the jus ad bellum - resorting to armed force, and jus in bello - rules regulating the conduct of hostilities, intersect. Recognizing and understanding intersectionality is key to a well reasoned and effective response - normative, humanitarian, and political. Image
The prohibition against the use of force amongst states and the exceptions to it (self-defence, and UN authorization for the use of force), set out in the UN Charter, are the core ingredients of jus contra bellum. Image
Article 2(4) provides that "all Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations."
Read 8 tweets
Feb 19
What does the imminent (or possible) #UkraineInvasion have to do with the prolonged occupation of #Palestine? Here are my thoughts on the failure of the international community to prosecute the crime of aggression.
Resolution 3314, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1974, defines aggression as “[t]he invasion or attack by the armed forces of a State of the territory of another State, or any military occupation, however temporary, resulting from such invasion or attack (...)
or any annexation by the use of force of the territory of another State or part thereof.” The international community had failed in ending #Israeli belligerent occupation of #Palestinian territory for 55 years and likewise failed to prevent annexation, de jure, and de facto.
Read 8 tweets
Feb 18
#Israeli Annexation of #Palestinian territory on hold, following the #AbrahamAccords? Nothing further from the truth. Here is why:
Since the @naftalibennett - @yairlapid government was sworn in on 13 June 2021, 661 #Palestinian structures were destroyed, including 122 @EUpalestinians @eu_echo funded humanitarian relief structures, adversely affecting 11,361 persons.
Since August 2020, Israel established 25 new settlement outposts or satellite neighborhoods - in violation of international law - and in areas most disruptive to the territorial integrity of a future State of #Palestine.
Read 5 tweets
Feb 17
BREAKING: According to @cogatonline, in the last five years, #Palestinians in Area C were granted 33 building permits, while during the same period, settlers - transferred to occupied territory in violation of #IHL - were granted over 16,500 building permits. Annexation de facto.
The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies. It is intended to prevent a practice adopted during the Second World War by certain Powers (...)
which transferred portions of their own population to occupied territory for political and racial reasons or in order, as they claimed, to colonize those territories. Such transfers worsened the economic situation of the native population and endangered their separate existence.
Read 16 tweets
Feb 16
#SheikhJarrah - again the hotspot for disturbances and tensions caused by the heightened risk of forcible transfer and supplanting of its #Palestinian inhabitants with #Israeli settlers- has been at the epicenter of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict since its inception.
#SheikhJarrah is also the place where international humanitarian law #IHL saw a major development in relation to the protection of medical personnel and transports and the role played by the @ICRC and national Red Cross and Crescent Societies @ifrc:
On April 9, 1948, when militants from the Zionist paramilitary groups Irgun and Lehi killed an estimated number of 250 Palestinians, including women and children, in #DeirYassin, a village of roughly 600 people near #Jerusalem.
Read 8 tweets

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