French Court Case Finds Israel Occupation of West Bank Not Illegal

Summary of Article: the PLO and Palestinian Authority sued several French companies for building a tram in Jerusalem that projects into Palestinian land, which they claim is illegally occupied.  After a lengthy suit, the French Court just found that the disputed land is not illegally occupied by Israel and that the PLO/PA had to pay 90,000 eros in court costs to the firms. 

Discussion with Kids:

• Look at a map of Israel. The land marked as Samara/Judea, also known as the West Bank, was won by Israel in 1967 after 6 days of war. Now some Jews live there and some Palestinians live there. It is still undecided who owns the land. Some Palestinians claim that it all belongs to them and want to build a state there; Israel doesn't know what to do because without some of that land, Israel does not feel safe. Plus many Jews are living there now and don't want to leave.
• Israel recently build a tram in Jerusalem. Why? (Decrease congestion and traffic; help tourists). Some Palestinians claim that the tram is not allowed because it stretches into the West Bank (East Jerusalem). Click here for pictures of the light rail and map of where it goes. 
• They sued the companies building the tram. The sued in France because the companies are French. 
• A French court just found that the Palestinians are wrong and they ordered them to pay money to the companies for suing them. Why? (To deter frivolous litigation in the future).
• The Court found that the Palestinians were wrong because the international law that the Palestinians wanted to use only applies to states. Israel is a state but the Palestinians do not have a state yet. So the law does not apply here. 
• And, according to that law, the Court found that Israel is not in the West Bank without permission. (The full text of the case is not yet translated but one argument is that under international law, a land is only illegally occupied if it is seized from another state. Before 1967, the West Bank was illegally occupied by Jordan, who seized it in 1948; before 1948, the West Bank was colonized by the British; before that by the Ottomans. So it is really stateless land, which by definition cannot therefore be illegally occupied by Israel).