What is the justification for Israel's illegal settlements on the west bank?

There is none, only propaganda! This Israeli "winning lands through wars" mentality has no legal basis in the international law. It is a medieval backwards culture that has no place in modern civilized world.

The settlements are illegal, there is no question about that. The International Court of Justice ruled in 2004 that settlements are illegal and that their constitute a breach of Geneva Convention whether they belong to sovereign country or not! UN Security Council Resolution 446 also says settlements are illegal and so does the entire international community.

@BMCR
You are misquoting your own source. Where exactly did Stephen Schwebel or Eugene Rostow say that settlements are legal? If you believe that international court of justice has no legal weight why would you (your source I mean) quote the formerly President of the International Court of Justice?

@Asker
I did answer your question. Their justification is that settlements are not illegal. I just pointed out how that's propaganda. There are some who think that digging up names from oblivion like "Judea" will magically turn West Bank into a Jewish land, but I don't think anyone can take these people seriously. Jewish population in West Bank and Gaza was only 1% before the creation of Israel. As early as 1517 Jews made less than 2% of population in whole Palestine. Did you know that Jews in Jerusalem owned no more than 2% of lands in 1945? Why would any sane person call that Jewish historical land? I told you, it's all propaganda. You won't get any valid justification.

The Palestinians have already made their concessions they have lost 80% of their territory, it's up to Israel now to make concessions give up their settlements in the remaining Palestinian territory, stop the occupation, to allow Palestinians to establist their own sovereignty.

Unfortunately this will never happen, Israel has ignored countless human rights violations, UN resolutions etc, how often have we heard Israel propose fake peace talks, which they use as stall tactics while they continue to build more and more settlements to establish more terrority, Israel have no intention of peace, they have been Bullshitting for the last 60 years. Israel wont be happy until they occupy all, 100% of Palestinian land, some Palestinians might be lucky to survive only to be treated as second class citizens in the Israeli apartheid state.

Everyone keeps saying "illegal settlements", but, actually, the question is - why exactly are these settlements illegal? Under what legal system? The lands were captured by Israel in a war, so Israeli law holds there... It is possible at all for some other country to declare them illegal, if they don't fall under its jurisdiction? I mean, let's suppose France declares a new settlement (say, a farm) in New Zealand illegal - how does that even make sense?

Israel never took the land from Palestine, there was no such country as Palestine in 1967. They took it from Jordan. Jordan later annexed the land they were illegally occupying.

In short, there was no legal sovereign nation in the West Bank at the time and Israel took it over in self defense.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=ub2x5UvjU...

Recently a French court ruled the settlements and construction legal.

http://dreuz.info/2013/04/la-cour-da...

Also, Jews were living in the West Bank long before the Zionist movement had even began,, and Jerusalem was Jewish majority until Jordan illegally occupied the West Bank and kicked out every Jew and barred them from returning. Jews are now returning to the land.

There is no legitimate justification for settlements.

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Boston Globe
http://bostonglobe.com/news/world/20...

Israel ‘‘must cease all settlement activities without preconditions’’ and start withdrawing all settlers from the occupied territories, the judges state in their report, which is due to be debated in the Human Rights Council in March.
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http://guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jan...

Israel must withdraw all settlers from the West Bank or potentially face a case at the international criminal court (ICC) for serious violations of international law, says a report by a United Nations agency that was immediately dismissed in Jerusalem as "counterproductive and unfortunate".
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There are no illegal Israeli settlements... anywhere.

Many legal experts have said the settlements are not illegal

The justification is precisely that they are NOT illegal.

"Guns. Lots of guns."