Since then, Israel developed a legal, political and military rule over the Palestinian people that combines occupation, apartheid and colonization,67 and facilitates the forced displacement of Palestinians on both sides of the Green Line, which is the Armstice Line of 1949. Former UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in the occupied Palestinian territory, John Dugard, identified the existence of these overlapping regimes throughout the occupied Palestinian territory, and underscored the consensus of the international community around them “as inimical to human rights.”68 Furthermore, he states that Israel’s occupation contains elements of apartheid, manifested in a host of laws and practices that discriminate against Palestinians in favor of Jewish-Israeli settlers (colonizers).69 Israeli practices in the occupied territory include the exercise of sovereignty, annexation of land, implanting of settlers (colonizers), fragmentation of the territory, forcible displacement of civilians and so forth. 1. Belligerent occupation Belligerent occupation is accepted as a possible consequence of armed conflict though under the law of armed conflict (international humanitarian law), it is intended to be a temporary state of affairs. Israel has a de facto authority to administre the occupied Palestinian territory, but is not allowed to exercise sovereignty over it. International law prohibits the unilateral annexation or permanent acquisition of territory as a result of the threat or use of force. Israel is to enforce existing laws in the territory, but has no right to change or annuling them. Moreover, Israel is obliged to abide by the relevant rules of the law of armed conflict — principally the provisions of the Hague Regulations of 1907 and the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 — in its administration of the territory. 2. Colonization Colonization is a practice of colonialism, defined in the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples (1960) as a state in which the acts of a State have the cumulative outcome that it annexes or otherwise unlawfully retains control over territory and thus aims permanently to deny its indigenous population the exercise of its right to selfdetermination. Colonialism is considered to be a particularly serious breach of international law because it is fundamentally contrary to core values of the international legal order. 67 For analysis of Israel’s apartheid, colonialism and occupation, see the study of the Human Sciences Research Council of South Africa (HSRC): “Occupation, Colonialism, Apartheid? A Re-Assessment of Israel’s Practices in the Occupied Palestinian Territories under International Law”, Capetown, South Africa, May 2009. See also: Davis, Uri Apartheid Israel, Possibilities for the Struggle Within, Zed Books, London, 2003. 68 “Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, Dugard, John, Implementation Of General Assembly Resolution 60/251 Of 15 March 2006”, A/HRC/4/17, 29 January 2007. 69 GA/SHC/3893, 24 October 2007. 24